Apple Raisin Muffins

 

Anyone familiar with Paula Deen of the Food Network knows that she loves butter, butter, and more butter.  Anyone familiar with me knows that I like butter...but only in moderation (usually).  So where do Paula and I find common ground?  In these apple raisin muffins.  How?  Because Paula is so generous with her butter, I can replace half of it with apple sauce and still produce some darn good muffins.  To further de-Paula this recipe, I often replace 1 ½ cups of the all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour, and toss in about 2 tablespoons of nutty wheat germ to up the fiber and vitamin content of these flavorful treats.

Just as banana bread is the perfect vehicle for overripe bananas, these muffins are a perfect use for apples that are slightly past their prime.  Sweet, spicy, moist, they are perfect for breakfast or an afternoon snack.  Re-warm in the microwave or toaster oven for optimal tastiness.  This is a big recipe, but it halves easily if needed.  Muffins will keep for three or four days in a sealed bag or container. 

Miniature Apple Raisin Muffins  (Adapted from Paula Deen, www.foodnetwork.com)

Makes about 5 dozen mini muffins or 2 dozen regular muffins

Note: Although the active time for this recipe is actually quite short, the apple mixture does take several hours to cool, so plan accordingly.

* 1 cup of water

* 2 cups (400 grams) granulated sugar

* 2 cups grated apples, any variety will do (2 large or 3 medium apples)

* 2 cups of raisins

* 1 stick (8 tablespoon/4 ounces) unsalted butter

* 1 cup of unsweetened apple sauce

* 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

* 2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
* 1 teaspoon ground ginger

* ½ teaspoon ground cloves

* ½ teaspoon kosher salt

* 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

* 2 teaspoons baking soda

* 3 ½ (420 grams) cups all-purpose flour, OR a mix of all purpose and whole wheat flour and wheat germ, equaling 3 ½ cups (I use about 240 grams all-purpose flour, 160 grams whole wheat flour, and 2 tablespoons of wheat germ.  If you don't have any wheat germ, use 180 grams whole wheat flour)

* Butter or oil spray (such as PAM)

1. In a medium saucepan, combine the water, sugar, apples, raisins, butter, apple sauce, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt.  Bring the mixture to a boil.  Remove the pan from the heat and cool to room temperature.  (While I've never timed it, my recollection is this takes 2 to 3 hours, even in the fridge.  Stir the mixture occasionally to help the process along.)

2. When your mixture has cooled, crank up your oven to 350˚F.  Grease your muffin tins with butter or oil spray (such as PAM).

3. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, and nuts, if using.  Glob the cooled apple mixture onto the dry ingredients, and stir gently, just until combined.  The mixture will be thicker and chunkier than a traditional batter.  However, if you feel like it's so dry that the flour won't fully incorporate, add a ¼ cup of water to loosen things up.

4. Fill greased muffin tins almont to the top, and bake for 15 minutes for minis, about 22 minutes for regular muffins, or until a toothpick inserted near the center of the muffins comes out clean.  Cool the muffins in the tins until they can be removed without burning your fingers, then cool completely on wire racks.  If you need to reuse the muffin tins for additional batches, pop them in the fridge for a few minutes until they're cool to the touch, then re-grease and repeat until all the batter is used.

Enjoy!!

Apple Walnut Bread

 

This recipe begins with one kind of past-its-prime apple sitting in my fridge.  Most people would just chuck it out in the woods for the deer (if your house is surrounded with them, like mine is), or in the garbage.  However, I used it as an excuse to make a loaf of apple walnut bread that I'd been eyeing on a great baking site, Joy The Baker.  And I am so glad I did!

In addition to the apples (you'll need 2 for this recipe), this bread is loaded with healthy and delicious walnuts, flax seeds, wheat flour, and flavorful brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg.  Oh, and butter.  Yum :)  However, if you're weary of butter, I imagine that it could be replaced by canola oil, which is much lower in saturated fat and a tiny bit higher in unsaturated fat.  Also, if you don't want to invest in flax seeds (they run about $5 a bag, kind of steep, although extremely healthy!) you can definitely leave them out.  So whether you've got a couple of apples you need to get rid of, or you're just looking for a delicious and easy bread suitable for breakfast, snacking, or dessert, bake this bread!

Apple Walnut Flax Seed Bread (From Joy the Baker)

Makes one 9×5-inch loaf

* 1 cup all-purpose flour

* 3/4 cup whole wheat flour

* 3/4 cup brown sugar, packed

* 2 teaspoons baking powder

* 1 teaspoon baking soda

* 1/2 teaspoon salt

* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

* 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

* 2/3 cup buttermilk (if you don't have buttermilk, see substitution note below)

* 1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled

* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

* 2 large eggs, lightly beaten

* 1 cup grated apples

* 1/2 cup coarsely chopped apples

* 1 tablespoon flax seeds

* 3/4 cup coarsely chopped walnuts, divided

* About 1/2 tablespoon cinnamon and 1 tablespoon sugar, mixed, for sprinkling

Note: If you don't have buttermilk (I won't lie: I never buy it), here's what you do:  Measure 2/3 tablespoon lemon juice or white vinegar, and put in a measuring cup.  Add milk until it makes 2/3 of a cup.  Stir, then let sit for about 5 minutes, and voila, buttermilk substitute!

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease a 9×5x3-inch loaf pan.

 

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together dry ingredients (flours through spices)

3.  In a small bowl, whisk together buttermilk, eggs, melted butter and vanilla extract.

4.  Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.  Add the chopped and grated apple, flax seeds and half of the walnuts and fold them into the batter.

5.  Spoon batter into prepared pan and top with granulated sugar, cinnamon and the rest of the walnuts.  Bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean.

Do not fill your pan this much!  Spillage will occur!  (My pan was too small, and I was greedy and 

tried to fit all the batter in.  It didn't work.  Guess I should have used the right size pan...)

6.  Let cool in the pan for at least 15 minutes.  Cool completely before wrapping and storing.  Enjoy!

The Obvious Solution

The other night I could not help but notice how cluttered my tiny little counter was becoming. While I was sitting at the dinner table I kept looking over and trying the mentally erase all of the things that had ended up there recently. Of course, there are some things that you just can't do much about: the spice rack, the microwave, the coffee maker, and the coffee grinder, which became a permanent addition when Erik decided to switch to whole bean coffee. Other than those things (which take up nearly half of the counter), I like to keep the rest of the space clear, because with 7 square feet (yes, I measured, and no, I'm not exaggerating) every inch counts. Nalgene can go in my work bag, travel mug can go in the cupboard, red wine...will drink soon, half a pound of cranberries as souvenir of the annual Cranberry Festival...must go. Clearly the solution is Cranberry-Orange Bread!

Nantucket has its own cranberry bogs in the middle of the island, and the harvest is celebrated each fall with a festival out at the bogs. I've been on island for five Cranberry Fests now, but this was the first time that I actually made the trek out to the bogs to see how it's all done. It was actually quite interesting. Once the bogs are flooded the berries some sort of picking tractor thing knocks the berries off the bushes.


The berries are partially hollow so they float to the top, where harvesters use these long flexible bands to corral the berries.

A vacuum then sucks them out of the bog up to a washer/sorter, after which they're shot into a truck. Often photos of cranberry bogs show a sea of red berries, but really that's only the reality once all the berries have been corralled into one area; when they first float to the top there is a lot more water than berries. While I was there I bought a pound (at a steep $5) to support Sustainable Nantucket.

The first half pound became homemade cranberry sauce which was so delicious that I ate it with spoon out of the container. I'll share that recipe as well, since it was ridiculously easy and totally beats canned cranberry sauce. The other half pound sat around for a while, and today met its match in a cranberry-orange bread, which may have been the first quick bread I ever baked. When I was in high school my boyfriend at the time gave me a copy of Christmas Cooking for Dummies. I'm sure there was some joke behind it, although I have since forgotten what it is. Since my family rarely prepares a Christmas dinner worth mentioning (half a chicken breast and leftover roasted veggies anyone?), I've never really had occasion to use it, other than to make the Cranberry Orange quick bread. I think the cookbook is still at my parents' apartment so I turned to my "basics bible"--Better Homes & Gardens Red Plaid Cookbook, and tweaked the Nut Bread recipe to make it Cranberry Orange Bread. While banana bread is always my quick & easy go-to quick bread, but this one even eclipses it for ease and few ingredients, since it only uses one leavener and no spices. And with only one egg and 1/4 cup of oil, it's even healthier (that's my positive spin--it would probably be more accurate to say "less bad for you"). I even refrained from adding chocolate chips (Instead I ate a handful. Naughty me), although I suspect that would be a fantastic addition to make this more of a dessert-y bread, since chocolate goes exceptionally well with both orange and cranberries.

So without further ado, the recipe:

Cranberry Orange Quick Bread (adapted from Better Homes & Gardens)

* 2 cups of all-purpose flour (or a combo of all-purpose & whole wheat if you like. I often replace just under half of the all-purpose with whole wheat for a slight health kick)
* 1 cup of sugar
* 1 tablespoon of baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon of salt
* 2 teaspoons of finely grated orange peel (1 medium-large orange is perfect)
* 1 beaten egg
* 1 cup of orange juice
* 1/4 cup of cooking oil
* 1 cup of cranberries, coarsely chopped (or more...I used nearly 2 cups, just to get rid of them. A mini Cuisinart, such at the Prep or Prep Plus is a great tool for chopping the cranberries. Pulse a few times and voila, copped cranberries!)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and grease the bottom and half inch up the sides of a loaf pan.

2. Mix together the dry ingredients and the grated orange peel in a large bowl

3. In a small bowl or in your liquid measuring cup combine the orange juice, egg and oil. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix gently until just combined.

4. Fold cranberries into batter and pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 50-55 minutes until a wooden skewer inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.

5. Cool and remove from pan. As with all quick breads, this bread is best if you wrap it up (once it's cooled) and store it overnight before slicing.



Basic Homemade Cranberry Sauce

The orange zest in this recipe adds that je ne sais quoi and sets it apart from canned cranberry sauce. This recipe makes about 2 1/4 cups of cranberry sauce. If that's more than you'll need, halve the recipe and use the other half of the cranberries for the bread.

* 12-ounce bag of fresh cranberries (available in most grocery stores this time of year)
* 1 cup of sugar
* 2/3 cup of water (replace some of the water with OJ if you like even more of an orange-y taste)
* zest of one medium-large orange (about 2 heaping teaspoons)
* 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1. Combine all ingredients in a heavy saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring often.

2. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer until most of the cranberries have burst, about 10-15 minutes.

3. Remove from heat. Cool and store, covered, in the fridge for up to a week. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Puree, Two Ways

Happiness, for it is finally pumpkin season (well, practically)! I know, pumpkin comes in a can, and is available all year round, but I just feel funny using it when it's warm and sunny outside, and I could be going to the beach instead. Any cans of pumpkin that I buy in the fall and winter and don't end up using by the time spring rolls around are just destined to sit in the pantry until fall again. But now it's the fall (well, a few hours to go...), and so the pumpkin is out.

The whole reason I ended up using pumpkin today goes back to my post last weekend , when I gave you a recipe for a romaine salad with avocados and corn and a smoky dressing featuring chilies in adobo. Ah yes, that ingredient that is no longer so elusive. Then this week hit, and Erik and I were out every night but one, and I never got around to using any more of that extra chili stuff. Tonight I was determined to use it in something, which is how I stumbled upon a Rachel Ray recipe for chicken with pumpkin polenta. Weird, right? Not only does the polenta have lots of pumpkin, it also uses chilies in adobo, so I figured hey, why not? Easy enough, and I had everything I needed (always an important factor to consider when the grocery store seems oh so far away. Hey, 5 miles is far, in my opinion. City girl here, accustomed to convenience...)

So here's my only gripe about canned pumpkin: the cans only come in two sizes (big and huge), and so recipes are formulated around those sizes, and they often yield a lot. Which isn't always desirable when you're cooking for 2. I never end up using extra polenta, so I wanted to halve the recipe, but it calls for a full can of pumpkin, so what is a girl to do? Well, what this girl did was recall that her favorite pumpkin bread recipe also calls for a full can of pumpkin but makes 2 loaves, which despite her deep, deep love for pumpkin bread, cannot be consumed before the second loaf gets stale and/or moldy. Solution: half recipes of each, using 1 can of pumpkin. Genius! (or at least, I like to think so).

Pumpkin polenta is an interesting thing. I think I like it, but it's definitely a little odd at the same time. It's very well balanced, with smoky/spicy chili in adobo, savory pumpkin, sweet honey, and salty salt. Sorry, ran out of adjectives there. We served it with Rachel's BBQish chicken and hearty salad dressed with the remainder of the dressing from last week's salad, which tied the flavors together. I'd really be interested to know what others think of this recipe. It's quite easy (and you may already have the ingredients), so give it a whirl and let me know!


Pumpkin Polenta (from Rachel Ray)
Serves four, halve it for two, since it makes a lot

* 2 cups chicken stock
* 1 cup milk
* 1 chipotle chili in adobo, finely chopped, and 2 teaspoons of adobo sauce
* 3/4 cup of cornmeal or quick cooking polenta
* 1 15-ounce can pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling--they are different!)
* 2 tablespoons butter
* 2 tablespoons honey

1. Combine the chicken stock and milk in a saucepan with the chili in adobo, and bring to a boil then lower the heat.

2. Slowly add the corn meal or polenta to the liquid, whisking as you do so to avoid lumps. Continue whisking until the polenta has thickened, about 3 or 4 minutes. Stir in the pumpkin and allow to heat through. Whisk in the butter and honey, and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Obviously, I did half of this recipe for Erik and me, and then saved the second half of the can for pumpkin bread, which I whipped up after dinner. I love this pumpkin bread recipe because it is incredibly easy and comes together in a cinch. The bread is incredibly sweet, savory, and a little spicy, and can easily accommodate any little things you want to throw in (always chocolate chips in this household, but dried cranberries are good, and I have a suspicion that blueberries could be good too, although with Erik around, it's always chocolate chips!)

Pumpkin Bread (Better Homes & Gardens Red Plaid Cookbook, 12th Edition)
Makes 2 loaves

This is the full recipe, but it halves easily if you only use 1/2 a can of pumpkin

* 3 cups white sugar
* 1 cup cooking oil (corn or canola)
* 4 eggs
* 3 1/3 cups all purpose flour
* 2 teaspoons baking soda
* 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
* 2/3 cup of water
* 1 15-ounce can of pumpkin puree (not pie filling--they're different!)
* Optional: chocolate chips, dried cranberries, nuts, or any other additions you choose

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 2 loaf pans (9x5x3 inch) or the equivalent in mini loaf pans or muffin tins (yup, converts easily to muffins)

2. In a large mixing bowl beat together sugar and oil until combined. Add eggs and beat again until combined.


2. In a medium bowl combine dry ingredients.


3. Alternately add the dry ingredients and water to the egg mixture, beating together after each addition. Mix in pumpkin puree. Fold in any other additions, if desired. Divide between loaf pans and bake for 55 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Adjust baking time for small loaf pans or muffin tins.

My Signature Recipe: Chocolate Chip Banana Bread.

Tonight I am baking what I consider my signature recipe, Chocolate Chip Banana Bread. I eat a lot of bananas, but when I can't keep up with the bunches (since I only like them when they're slightly under-ripe), they become banana bread. I've tried several recipes, but I've decided that the easiest/my favorite is one that I have adapted from one of my go-to books for easy recipes: Better Homes & Gardens red plaid cookbook (I have the 12th edition).

A random note here: I've always been confused by the term "adapted" when people (bloggers & food writers, essentially) say they've adapted something from such and such a source. Do they mean that they've made changes to a recipe, or that it's the same recipe from whatever source it's "adapted" from, and adapted is just a nice way of saying that it's someone else's recipe? If anyone could clear this up for me, I'd be most grateful. Anyway, just to make things clear, when I say adapted, I mean that I've tweaked it a little, but it's more or less the same recipe.

My adaptations to this recipe essentially include making it 1.5x bigger so that it fits perfectly in a standard bundt ban, since I am obsessed with them (see profile). I also add oats, bump up the spices, replace some of the oil with applesauce, and then add chocolate chips, because that's what makes it mm mm good. However, if you want the real Better Homes & Gardens recipe, it can be found here.

Banana Bread (Adapted from Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook, 12th Edition)

* 3 cups flour (I often do a 2:1 combo of all-purpose and whole wheat, or sometimes a 1.5:1:0.5 combo of all-purpose, wheat, and oats)
* 2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
* 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon cinnamon
* 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
* 3 eggs, beaten
* About 2 cups overripe mashed bananas, which is 5 or so large bananas. I never actually measure, and it always seems to work out fine.
* 1 1/2 cups sugar
* 3/4 cup vegetable oil or 1/2 cup oil and 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
* Your favorite chocolate chips in whatever quantity you like. (I like the jumbo Ghirardelli 60% bittersweet chips, and Hershey's Special Dark chocolate chip are good, too. Sometimes I do a combo of dark and semi-sweet, depending on what's in my pantry. I probably use about a cup of chocolate chips, but this is one addition you can adjust to suit your tastes.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease (with softened butter or PAM) a standard bundt pan. (These also make good muffins, so if that's more your style, grease some muffin tins)

2. In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients (flour(s) through nutmeg). Whisk together lightly and make a well in the center. In a medium bowl, mix together eggs, bananas, sugar and oil or oil/applesauce.

3. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir together lightly until just combined. The batter can be lumpy. Gently fold in chocolate chips. Pour batter into prepared pan.

4. Bake for 55-65 minutes (20-25 minutes for muffins), or until a wooden toothpick or skewer inserted in the middle of the ring comes out clean.  The top should be golden brown and will probably be cracked in the middle. Remove  the bread from the oven and cool for at least 15 or 20 minutes before removing it from pan. To remove from pan, invert a plate or cake stand over the bundt pan and flip the plate and the pan over together.

Notice the golden brown crust, slightly cracked, and skewer used to test the banana bread.  It came out clean, which meant that the bread was ready to come out of the oven.

Now, this is where BH & G and I really differ. They say to cool the bread completely and then wrap and store overnight before serving. While this will allow the cake to firm up and make it easier to slice, I absolutely cannot resist eating at least one slice when it's still warm from the oven. I will concede, however, that it does crumble quite a bit when it's still warm from the oven, but if I'm just baking it for me, I say, who cares? In any case, you should let it cool completely before wrapping with saran wrap or aluminum foil, though I always suggest heating it up before enjoying a slice. When I'm eating it for breakfast then I just zap it in the microwave for about 20 seconds, but when I pack some for lunch I leave it in a tupperware on the dashboard of my truck all morning so that by noon the bread is warm and moist and the chocolate chips are starting to melt. Delicious! And on that note, I think I am going to go eat a slice.

Okay, so the edges are a little rough when it's hot from the oven.
By tomorrow morning it will slice nicely, and be just as yummy.