I seem never to tire of anything that made from apples. This fruit is delicious in all its forms…cold and crunchy, or hot and spicy baked in desserts, sautéed, or simmered into a sauce. Apples are one of the most versatile fruits that lend themselves to most any form of preparation.
I am always eager to try any new apple recipe, such as the one that follows. I have named these Fantastic Apple Pecan Fantans, and that is absolutely what they are!
With practice one can become adept at producing perfectly shaped fans. However first attempts often result in irregular shapes, which I personally prefer. No matter what shape they turn into, they taste so fantastic that shape becomes incidental. The fact that they include whole wheat flour is comforting and always makes me feel like I’m enjoying a “healthy treat!”
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Fantastic Apple Pecan Fantans
SERVINGS1dozen
|
COOK TIME18-20mins |
PREP TIME2 hrs25 mins |
READY IN2 hrs45 mins |
Ingredients
Instructions
- Prepare Dough: Combine first three ingredients in bowl of a heavy-duty mixer; let stand 5 minutes. Stir in egg, next three ingredients, and 1 1/2 cups bread flour. Beat at medium speed, using paddle attachment for one minute or until smooth. Gradually beat in whole wheat flour and enough remaining bread flour to make a soft dough.
- Turn dough out onto a well-floured surface, and knead until smooth and elastic (6 to 8 minutes), sprinkling surface with bread flour as needed. Place dough in a lightly greased large bowl, turning to grease top. Cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm place (85º Fahrenheit), free from drafts, 45 to 55 minutes or until doubled in bulk.
- Meanwhile, prepare Filling: Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add apples and brown sugar, and sauté 4 to 5 minutes or until apples are crisp-tender. Cool completely (about 30 minutes).
- Punch dough down; turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll into a 20- x 12-inch rectangle. Spread remaining 8 tablespoons softened butter over dough. Stir together 3/4 cup granulated sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle over butter, and top with pecans and apple mixture.
- Cut dough into 5 (12- x 4-inch) strips; stack dough strips. Replace any apples and pecans that fall out. Cut stack into 6 (4- x 2-inch) rectangles; cut each rectangle in half crosswise to form 12 (2-inch) squares. Place stacked squares, cut sides up, into cups of a lightly greased 12-cup muffin pan. Cover loosely with plastic wrap; let rise in a warm place (85º Fahrenheit), free from drafts, 45 minutes to 1 hour or until rolls rise about 3/4 inch above rim of pan.
- Preheat oven to 375º Fahrenheit. Bake 18 to 20 minutes or until deep golden brown. Cool in pan on a wire rack 5 minutes. Remove from pan to a wire rack.
- Optional: Prepare Glaze: Bring 1/3 cup butter and 1/3 cup brown sugar to a boil in a 1-qt. heavy saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly; boil 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; drizzle over top of warm rolls.
Spring is officially here. It’s a lovely day, sun shiney, a bit cool, but leaves are starting to come out. I am keeping a close eye on all of the perennials I planted last fall, and almost all have come up. And of course we have been babying our vegetable seedlings in our grow-tent, which will start to go into the ground any minute now. It’s a very hopeful time of year, full of new beginnings and promise.
We have been hosting special receptions each month as a part of the celebration of our choir’s 25th anniversary. Each month I am faced with the challenge of beautiful finger food that fits in a budget, and isn’t the same every time. I often use ingredients I’ve popped into the freezer. Cheese and crackers are always a good staple. We tried out two different recipes of cheese balls, and ended up combining elements of both to make a really classy cheese ball with lots of flavor. It’s a cheddar/Parmesan with port wine-soaked craisins folded into the mixture. Really delicious, and everyone loved it!
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Cheddar/Parmesan Cheese Ball with port wine soaked craisins
SERVINGS
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COOK TIME |
PREP TIME |
READY IN |
Ingredients
Instructions
- Soak craisins in port wine.
- In the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix cream cheese, sour cream, shredded cheeses, lemon zest, onion, garlic, pepper, cayenne until well combined, adding craisins at the end.
- Put chopped pecans on a piece of waxed paper.
- Remove cheese mixture from bowl, form into a ball, and roll in the chopped pecans.
- Can be refrigerated, but fine to serve right away.
Today was a beautiful day – it was warm and smelled like spring – do you know what I mean? The daffodils in the orchard had opened up, along with the grape hyacinths. Lots of buds on the apple, peach, pear, plum and nectarine trees. I just love all that new life waiting to burst forth!
There is nothing like a good cookie, don’t you agree? We serve a lot of them here – for tours and receptions, coffee hours, lunch desserts, to name a few; so I have found the recipes that work well in quantity and that I really like. And actually a lot of other people really like them, too. I have a weakness for white chocolate. I love other chocolate, too, but I really like white chocolate – and yes I know it’s not really even chocolate, but I do really like it! Anyway, I thought that it would be a great companion to cranberries – which are so Cape Cod – and pecans, so I started experimenting with recipes that would stand up to that threesome. Here is the result:
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White Chocolate Cranberry Pecan Cookie
SERVINGS
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COOK TIME15mins. |
PREP TIME |
READY IN |
Ingredients
Instructions
- Combine sugars, butter, shortening, salt, baking soda; cream together.
- Add eggs slowly.
- Add flour.
- Mix until just combined; do not over mix.
- Add white chocolate chips, cranberries and nuts, mix just enough to combine.
- Drop by large tablespoonfuls ( I use a #40 ice cream scoop) onto a parchment lined or greased pan.
- Bake in a 350 degree oven for 15 to 17 minutes or until golden brown on the edges.
Fresh Pear Blue Cheese Salad
A perfectly ripened pear is a beautifully elegant sight to behold. Equally as satisfying to senses is the savoring of its taste. Here again is something so naturally delicious it needs no enhancing. Be that as it may, whenever I’ve served a Fresh Pear Blue Cheese Salad the responses are so overwhelming that I keep wondering why I don’t do it more often. These two ingredients so naturally compliment each other when “peared” together, it’s as though they were made for each other. Here is all you do to create this marvelous tasting sensation:
Place one beautiful lettuce leaf on a serving plate. Top with a handful of cut lettuce. Drizzle with your favorite ranch dressing. Place a pear half cavity side up. Fill with a spoonful of thick sour cream seasoned with onion salt. Sprinkle the entire salad as generously or as sparingly as desired with crumbled blue cheese. Sprinkle the entire salad with lightly salted toasted pecans. The key of course is the perfectly ripened beautiful fresh pear.
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Fresh Pear Blue Cheese Salad
SERVINGS
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PREP TIME |
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Ingredients
Instructions
- Place one beautiful lettuce leaf on a serving plate.
- Top with a handful of cut lettuce.
- Drizzle with your favorite ranch dressing.
- Place a pear half cavity side up.
- Fill with a spoonful of thick sour cream seasoned with onion salt.
- Sprinkle the entire salad as generously or as sparingly as desired with crumbled blue cheese.
- Sprinkle the entire salad with lightly salted toasted pecans.
- The key of course is the perfectly ripened beautiful fresh pear.
Well, here it is . . . Apple Drop Time again. Early every morning you will find the young sisters out in the orchard gathering up all the apples that have dropped from the trees since the morning before. The point is to get to them before the mowers or any of the live little outdoor creatures do. We want to be good stewards and make use of every bit of fruit, regardless of how perfect or imperfect it may be.
Warm, spicy apple butter can camouflage lots of imperfections and is so wonderful on hot, buttered toast at breakfast. Apples and pork just naturally seem to compliment each other. A slowly simmered sauce adds so much home-cooked goodness to a succulent pork roast. A simple plain grilled pork chop can be elevated from ordinary “comfort food” to a first-class entrée, by dressing it up with a few apple and onion slices that have been caramelized in a little butter and brown sugar. Right now while the gardens are producing an overabundance of fresh, crispy heads of cabbage – and it’s so tender and sweet – we are enjoying it shredded into slaw. I like to add a little grated apple to give it a tangy touch. We never seem to have any trouble using up our daily collection of these hardy little drops. However, when more than just a few accumulate on the kitchen counter, we know it’s time for something we just never get enough of: good old-fashioned Apple Crisp. So easy to make – so scrumptious to eat.
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Apple Crisp
SERVINGS
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COOK TIME50mins. |
PREP TIME |
READY IN |
Ingredients
- Mix together the following ingredients and place in a greased 2-quart casserole dish:
- 3 cups apple(s) peeled and sliced
- 2 Tbsp. sugar
- ¾ tsp. cinnamon
- In a separate bowl, mix together the following ingredients until crumbly:
- 1 cup oatmeal (uncooked)
- ½ cup butter
- 1 cup brown sugar
- ½ cup flour
- ¼ tsp. salt
- ½ cup walnuts chopped, if desired. Or
- ½ cup pecans chopped, if desired
Instructions
- Spread the topping mixture over the apples.
- Bake uncovered at 350º F until apples are tender and topping is crisp and browned (approximately 50 minutes)
- Serve warm.
- For another dimension of flavor, add the zest and juice of one orange to the filling.
