Chunky Apple Coconut Cake

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Apple season has begun.  I love fresh, crisp apples.  At my farmer's market, the same orchard farmer who has the most delicious, juicy peaches every summer starts apple season with fabulous ginger gold apples in late summer.  This year he had lots of second apples because of hurricane Irene.  Did you know that the east coast had an earthquake (unheard of) and a hurricane in one week.  The area was already saturated with water and flooding was guaranteed.  There was more concern about trees falling over because of ground saturation than high winds and I am sure both happened, but luckily not in my backyard.  During both of these events I was in Houston where there was no rain, no wind, the ground was stable and the fires has not started yet.  It was a good time to be out of town but I was a little sad I missed the earthquake because it was such and unusual event for my area.  The hurricane I can do without.  I like electricity and hot water and I have had enough rain.

Chunky Honeycrisp Applesauce

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 I got a bucket of hurricane Irene apple seconds.  They were all Honeycrisps. I felt like I hit a home run!

Needless to say I pounced on these jewels.  They had dings and a couple of bumps but no bruises.  Even if they had bruises I still would have bought them to make applesauce.  Homemade applesauce is one of my favorite fall treats.  It is great for breakfast, a side dish for dinner, snacks and a fabulous ingredient for applesauce cake.  I really haven't found the perfect applesauce cake, maybe you guys know of one?!

Morning Glory Muffins

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Muffins.  Most muffins are too much like cake for me.  They seem more like a treat than breakfast.  I like hearty for breakfast.  Nutritious helps.  Foods like homemade granola with plain yogurt, oatmeal made with steel cut oats,  hot cereals made with a multi-grain cereal or a whole grain slice of toast with some delicious jam or fruit spread on it.  These are the types of breakfast foods that make me feel good and gets me going.  Of all the muffins I have made and tried, Morning Glory Muffins are presently my favorite.  How can you really go wrong with a name like that?!

I searched for the healthiest Morning Glory Muffin recipe I could find and then started tweaking. I am very happy with the results and am sad to say not one made it to the freezer.  Nutrient dense recipes that taste good become staples in my recipe files.  I like the phrase "nutrient dense".  It is a concept we can all live by, literally. 

Chunky, Healthy and Delicious.

Even though I love hearty, healthy recipes, I do want to be true to what foods are suppose to be.  Cookies are supposed to taste like cookies,  cakes taste like cakes and so on.  Healthy only goes so far and then the recipe is nothing like it is supposed to be or something else entirely.  I am  not willing to give up all purpose flour or white sugar because they have their place in baking when you are trying to achieve a certain texture and/or taste which for me is also important.

Homemade Applesauce

Tweet Applesauce is something that you buy in a jar (especially if you have kids) and would never think of making it yourself.  Some of the jarred stuff is actually OK.  Applesauce is just, well apple sauce.  There is not a lot of pizazz to it.  It is simple and humble, unless you make your own.  It is not that hard.  Once you do, you will realize what a treat it really is.

Every Fall I make homemade apple sauce.  There is absolutely nothing like it.   It is fabulous.  I love it with granola and plain yogurt or with a slightly sweetened, cooked 10 grain cereal with plain yogurt.  It is the breakfast of champions (at least for this champion).  Or as a snack by itself.  Or a side dish at Thanksgiving.  Yes, that is right, a side dish!  It is so easy to make but it does take a few minutes of peeling.  Want to know my secret? Buy the biggest apples that you can find.  This way you peel fewer of them to get more sauce.  I like that!

Another tip is to buy different types of apples.  For example, this batch contains tart and/or sweet cooking apples like Granny Smith and Mutsu (these usually don't break down like the other apple varieties) along with Winesap and McIntosh, Ginger Gold and Fuji.  I am not that picky about the combination but I never use gala or red delicious.  And it is really awesome if you can find big apples.  I know I already said that but I wanted to drive the point home.  By combining the different varieties you will get applesauce with complex flavors instead of the garden variety, plain apple sauce from a store shelf.  It is totally worth it.  Have I convinced you yet?

You can make it chunky or smooth.  I like it chunky.

Spiced or plain.  I like mine with cinnamon.

Sugar or not.  I like mine  slightly sweetened with dark brown sugar.

Spiced Apple Cidertini

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I finally bought a bottle of Calvados.  I have always bypassed it because it was a bit expensive and I didn't think I had enough uses for it. That thinking has changed.  I am the type of person to have bought liquor in the dark ages and still have it.  It takes a while going through liquor when you use 1/4 cup or less a year.  Liquor has a tremendous shelf life so it is not a problem, or is it?  Beware when your kids become teenagers. Strange things seem to happen in the liquor cabinet.  The traditional pumpkin pie flavored with Southern Comfort suddenly doesn't taste quite like it used to, sort of bland and lacking that Southern Comfort flavor.  Maybe a bit diluted. That is a story for another day.

Back to the bottle of Calvados.  Calvadoes is a French apple brandy that is used in drink and food recipes. I am also sure that a warmed brandy snifter would be a perfect vessel for this apple brandy as an after dinner drink or a digestif.   For now, I want an apple cider martini.  It is the season and it just seems right.  I love spiced or mulled apple cider based drinks and I just happen to have a jug of apple cider. I have had a few apple martinis but some were too sweet and appley, kind of like apple bubble gum.  So for the past couple of weeks I was determined to come up with something I liked and that friends and family would enjoy.  So guess who became taste testers.  That is right, family and friends. They were more than happy to help out with this task.  This is what we all agreed upon . . .

Fresh Apple Bread

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This apple bread recipe is a spin off of the Fresh Peach Bread in a previous post with a few changes made.  Cinnamon was added, along with apple butter.  Brown sugar replaces some of the white sugar and I used apples instead of peaches.  We got lucky one day and ran across a basket of fabulous Honeycrisps that were seconds and half price.  They were almost perfect apples, except for a few natural scars and very few bruises.  We had to buy them and they were the inspiration for this apple bread.  Each one was huge and we have really enjoyed them.   One apple cut up was equal to 2 cups.  All weren't that big, but most were.  Honeycrisps seem to be the "bomb" apple.  They are always priced more that other varieties because of demand, but they are so worth it.

Note on Honeycrip Apples:  The Honeycrisp is a relatively new apple that is a cross between a Macoun and Honeygold and is American made.   This variety was developed by the University of Minnesota and introduced to the apple growers in 1991.  The Honeycrisp has been wildly successful and many growers can't keep them in stock.  As more growers are producing Honeycrisps availability is becoming less of a problem, although they are still priced higher than other apples.  They are great eating apples as they are sweet and tart at the same time and crisp.  They are also very good cooking and baking apples because of their texture and flavor, that is if you have enough left over to bake with.  The honeycrisp is a win-win apple, don't you think?  My family can't get enough of them.