Today I am looking out on a winter wonderland! We are in the midst of a blizzard that has dumped an amazing amount of snow as far as the eye can see. One of those days to sit by the fire with a hot cup of tea and a slice of warm Apple cranberry bread.
We still have apples in the refrigerator from our fall harvest which are in surprisingly good shape – the one I munched on while making this bread wasn’t fresh from the tree, but still crisp and sweet. We also were given a large quantity of cranberries from a local bog, so it seemed like a good use of the two to put them together in a quick bread. We are always looking for different morning snack ideas to serve at our community work time break. I tried a couple of different recipes and actually left the peels on the Apple’s to give the breads a little more texture. Here is one variety that I thought the most flavorful and moist.
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Apple Cranberry Bread
SERVINGS1loaf
|
COOK TIME45-55minutes |
PREP TIME |
READY IN10minutes |
Ingredients
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350 degree F. Grease bottom only of an 8 x 4 inch loaf pan
- In large bowl, mix 3/4 cup sugar, the oil and egg.
- Stir in apple, flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Stir in cranberries.
- Spoon batter into pan.
- In small bowl, mix 1 Tablespoon sugar and the cinnamon; sprinkle over batter.
- Bake 45 to 55 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
- Cool 10 minutes. Remove from pan and cool completely on wire rack before slicing.
Optional Glaze
- For glaze, combine confectioners sugar and half and half or milk, drizzle over bread.
Last month Elements Theater Company presented two memorable weekends of Charles Dicken’s Christmas Carol in our church. Favorable comments were made about each little detail of the production, including one delightful feature that added much to my own enjoyment of the experience. This was the roasting of chestnuts out in the cold night air over an open fire in the church atrium before and after each performance.
I think of Christmas time as chestnut season and since childhood chestnuts, along with pomegranates, have to me always been as essential as holly and ivy to its celebration. Not only did we enjoy eating the nuts warm out of the shell, but at our house they were always considered a necessary ingredient to our holiday stuffing. That’s what made it so special and different from the stuffing we had the rest of the year.
The combination of sausage, chestnuts, apples and savory herbs still remains in my memory as a most extraordinary culinary Christmas experience. But there’s no reason it can’t be enjoyed, even after the holidays while chestnuts are still available. Here’s my suggestion for a cold winters night……stuff a nice crown or loin of pork and roast it for an unexpected, out of the ordinary dinner. I guarantee you rave reviews.
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Rating: 5
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Chestnut Stuffing
SERVINGS
|
COOK TIME30minutes |
PREP TIME |
READY IN |
Ingredients
Instructions
- Put sausage meat and butter into a hot casserole.
- Add onions and celery and cook until soft, but not brown.
- Remove from heat and add marjoram and thyme.
- In a bowl combine bread, vegetables, hot stock, cider, apples and chestnuts.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste. Mix well.
- Place in covered baking dish and bake for 30 minutes or stuff into roast.
- Add a sprinkling of pomegranate at serving time for a touch of color and extra flavor.
What says Autumn more than apples? I still remember apple picking as a child — and all of the smells, tastes and visual stimuli that went with it… the drive to Hadley through the Notch, the trees a riot of color, the smell of leaves crunching underfoot and of ripening apples. The first bite sitting at the top of a tree, tart, juicy sweetness. We are harvesting our apple trees, a few at a time. The early apples are sweet, tart, and super crunchy, perfect for any baking one would want to do. I love apple pie. Also like apple dumplings, but I don’t fancy the whole apple wrapped in crust. So I thought of a marriage of the two — cinnamon sweet apple chunks bundled in pie crust! Little individual dumplings that anyone could eat warm from the oven. So here is what I came up with.
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Apple Bundles
SERVINGS5bundles
|
COOK TIME14-16minutes |
PREP TIME |
READY IN1hour |
Ingredients
Instructions
- Mix together flour, sugar and salt.
- Add butter and cut in with a pastry blender or 2 knives until mixture resembles course meal and the pieces of butter are pea-sized.
- Add water as needed and mix with a fork until dough holds together and you can form into a ball.
- Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.
For the filling
- Peel and cut apples into 1/2 inch pieces.
- In a large pan, over medium heat, melt butter and add apples. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes, stirring.
- Add sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg and cook a few more minutes. Set aside.
To make bundles
- Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- On a floured surface, roll out dough to 1/4 inch thickness in a rough rectangular shape. Using a sharp knife, cut dough into 4 inch squares.
- Place dough squares on prepared pans. Spoon 1 Tablespoon to 1 1/2 Tablespoons in center of dough square.
- Bring corners to center, pinching along seams. Brush top of each bundle, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar (last 2 ingredients combined).
- Bake for 14 to 16 minutes or until crust is golden. Can be served with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream or a dollop of whipped cream.
It is officially Autumn. Lots of pumpkins and apples at farm-stands, color coming in the trees, leaves falling, and that nip in the air that reminds us that summer is at an end. I love fall. I love the colors, the crisp air, the clear light. And the food! Summer was great and I enjoyed all of the fresh food, but who doesn’t welcome back hot soups and stews, butternut squash, and apples? I recently was looking for a fall salad and thought apple, frisee, and endive would be a good combination. I decided to stack it! Not only does it look great, but it also tastes amazing with the crunch of apples and greens and the subtle hints of maple and bacon.
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Stacked Apple Salad with Frisee and Belgian endive
SERVINGS4people
|
COOK TIME |
PREP TIME |
READY IN |
Ingredients
Instructions
- Core and thinly slice apples, place in a bowl with water and a dollop of lemon juice.
- In a small bowl combine shallots and vinegar. Set aside.
- In a heavy frying pan over medium heat, cook bacon until crisp and brown, drain on paper towels. Pour off all but 3 Tablespoons of the bacon fat and return pan to low heat.
- Remove shallots from vinegar and reserve.
- Add vinegar to hot bacon fat, whisking until emulsified. Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Break frisee into sprigs and mix with endive. Dress lightly with bacon fat vinegar combination, reserving some dressing to drizzle on salads.
- On salad plates arrange 2 apple slices, then some of the dressed greens and some shallot slices.
- Repeat using single apple slice, then the other components 2 times more ending with an apple slice. Drizzle with warm dressing, sprinkle with bacon and serve.
This is a busy time of year for us in Paraclete House Kitchen. We are in the process of making baked goods and preserves for the holiday season, some of which will also be for sale in Priory Gifts. Most Saturdays there are about fourteen people of all ages in the kitchen — from 5 years to 80+ years — making jams, chutneys, baking loaves of bread, cookies, pies, and cakes, as well as putting together mid-morning snack for the 200 other people out working on various projects around the community. We have of course been making a lot of things with our plentiful apple harvest; caramel apple pies, apple harvest jam, and my favorite, apple carrot chutney. This is a delicious accompaniment to roast pork, ham, or chicken, and is also wonderful for ham and cheese sandwiches. It’s especially good with cheese on a cracker or mixed into a spread.
Apple Carrot Chutney
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Apple Carrot Chutney
SERVINGS5cups
|
COOK TIME3 - 5mins. |
PREP TIME |
READY IN |
Ingredients
Instructions
- In a heavy pot, sauté carrots in canola oil until almost tender, about 3 to 5 minutes.
- Add in all the other ingredients, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer about one hour until slightly thick, stirring frequently.
- Ladle into hot, sterilized jars and seal, or transfer into a container and store in the refrigerator.
This is a busy time of year for us in Paraclete House Kitchen. We are in the process of making baked goods and preserves for the holiday season, some of which will also be for sale in Priory Gifts. Most Saturdays there are about fourteen people of all ages in the kitchen — from 5 years to 80+ years — making jams, chutneys, baking loaves of bread, cookies, pies, and cakes, as well as putting together mid-morning snack for the 200 other people out working on various projects around the community. We have of course been making a lot of things with our plentiful apple harvest; caramel apple pies, apple harvest jam, and my favorite, apple carrot chutney. This is a delicious accompaniment to roast pork, ham, or chicken, and is also wonderful for ham and cheese sandwiches. It’s especially good with cheese on a cracker or mixed into a spread.
Apple Carrot Chutney
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Rating: 2.75
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Apple Carrot Chutney
SERVINGS5cups
|
COOK TIME3-5mins. |
PREP TIME |
READY IN |
Ingredients
Instructions
- In a heavy pot, sauté carrots in canola oil until almost tender, about 3 to 5 minutes.
- Add in all the other ingredients, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer about one hour until slightly thick, stirring frequently.
- Ladle into hot, sterilized jars and seal, or transfer into a container and store in the refrigerator.
