Apple Picking

Went on our annual apple picking trip last weekend.  Not only do they have a fun kids area but great apples!  We ended up with $50 worth of apples and all I've made with them is homemade applesauce.  Last year I made lots of different things (apple pie muffins, apple bread, cross cross apple buns, apple turnovers, and apple pie of course) but this year I think I'm sticking with applesauce and a pie or two.  My husband and I absolutely love homemade applesauce.  I don't even eat any other applesauce.  So it doesn't last long.  I've found I can put it in my jam jars and freeze it and we can enjoy it a little longer.  What have you made with apples?

Criss Cross Apple Buns

Okay, so pardon the picture!  Next time I realize I need to make the "Xs" smaller so they aren't gapping wholes on top.  I also need to add more filling next time.  They were really good on top but the bottoms were just all biscuit.  The picture in the magazine looked really good and I think a tiny "x" on top would work.  I will definitely make these again though.  They were tasty and very easy to make.  I froze them before baking and have another batch in the freezer, ready to try the adjusted way.

Criss Cross Apple Buns

1 1/3 cup chopped peeled tart apples
1/3 cup chopped walnuts
1/3 cup raisins
1/2 cup sugar, divided
2 Tb all purpose flour
2 tsp ground cinnamon, divided
dash salt
1 pkg large refrigerated flaky biscuits
2 tsp butter, melted

In large microwavable-safe bowl, combine apples, walnuts, raisins, 3 Tb sugar, flour, 3/4 tsp cinnamon, and salt.  Microwave 2-3 minutes or until almost tender.

Flatten each biscuit into a 5-inch circle.  Combine remaining sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle a rounded teaspoonful of sugar mixture over each biscuit.  Top with 1/4 cup apple mixture.  Bring up edges to enclose mixture; pinch edges to seal.  Make like a little ball.

Place seam side down in ungreased muffin tin.  Brush tops with butter; sprinkle with cinnamon sugar mixture.  With a sharp knife, cut an "X" int the top of each.

Bake at 350 degrees fr 18-22 minutes or until golden brown.  Cool for 5 minutes before removing to cool completely.

Apple Turnovers

I only baked one of these to try it and stuck the rest in the freezer.  Next time I think I'll make them smaller and cut the extra dough off the edges.  I sprinkled mine with powdered sugar but I think they'd be good with an icing, which I'm not good at making but I might try the next time I bake these.  I'll say this wasn't the best of recipes.  The taste isn't bad but I think the dough could be more flaky or something.  Might try a different recipe next time.

Also, I doubled this and got 7 turnovers.  But if you made them smaller you could get more I guess.  Just didn't seem to make much dough.


Apple Turnovers

1 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup butter or Crisco
1 pkg (3 oz.) cream cheese

Combine.  Make into 4-6 little balls.  Chill.

FILLING:
1 1/2 cup chopped apples (fine)
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
dash nutmeg

Mix together.  Spoon into rolled dough to make individual turnovers.  Seal edges with a fork.  Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.  Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Homemade Applesauce

My kids love applesauce but most things I make homemade they don't like.  So I wasn't surprised that my husband and I both liked this better than the store bought but neither of my kids liked it.  My daughter took one bite and wouldn't eat it and my son wanted to know why it wasn't white.  So next time I'll be using white sugar and less cinnamon to see if he'll eat it.

Cut up 2 or 3 apples.  Put in a pan on medium heat with 1/4 cup water, 1/4 cup brown sugar, and a dash of cinnamon.  Cook until apples are very soft.  Cool.  Mix in blender until consistency of applesauce.

Apple Pie

I made this for the hubby before I left town. It's always a good one.

Apple Pie

two pie crusts (I just used the store kind this time around)

1/3 to 2/3 c sugar

1/4 c all purpose flour

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

dash of salt

8 cups thinly sliced peeled tart apples (about 8 medium)

2 Tb butter or stick margarine, if desired

Heat oven to 425 degrees.

Mix sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in large bowl. Stir in apples. Turn into pastry lined pie plate. Cut butter into small pieces; sprinkle over apples. Cover with top pastry that has slits cut in it; seal and flute. Cover edge with 2 to 3 inch strip of aluminum foil to prevent excessive browning; remove foil during last 15 minutes of baking.

Bake 40 to 50 minutes or until crust is golden brown and juice begins to bubble through slits in crust. Cool on wire rack at least 2 hours.

Oatmeal Fruit Bars

I used my strawberry freezer jam for this but you could use any fruit preserves. A good freezer food too.

Oatmeal Fruit Bars

Crumb Mixture:
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/4 cups quick cooking oats
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup butter, melted
2 tsp vanilla extract

Filling:
1 1/2 cups fruit preserves
1/2 cup coconut

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9 x 13 dish. Combine crumb mixture ingredients. Mix together with stand or hand mixture until you have beautiful, fluffy like crumbs.

Reserve 1 cup of crumb mixture and press the rest of the crumb mixture into the bottom of the baking dish. (Hint: Dip your fingers in some water first and the crumbs won't stick to you.) Spread the fruit preserves evenly over crumb mixture.



Sprinkle with coconut and evenly spread remaining 1 cup crumb mixture onver the coconut. Bake for 22 to 25 minutes until edges are golden brown. Cool completely and cut into bars. Wrap in plastic wrap and store in freezer. These are even good straight out of the freezer.

Raspberry Buttermilk Cake

I had to find something to make using the raspberries I had in the freezer and this looked yummy. It also turned out very good and tasted yummy too!

Raspberry Buttermilk Cake

1 c flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 stick unsalted butter

2/3 c sugar + 1 1/2 Tb

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 large egg

1 c buttermilk

raspberries--I used about a cup but the husband thought there should have been more

Begin by preheating oven to 400 degrees. In mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In another bowl, cream unsalted butter. I would suggest using unsalted in this one. I don't usually pay that much attention to that direction but this was a little salty with regular butter. Also, add in 2/3 cup sugar. Mix together for about 2 minutes until pale and fluffy. Add in vanilla and egg. Mix well.

Turn your mixer on low speed. Alternate the flour mixture and the buttermilk 2 or 3 times. Mix until it looks well-blended.

Spoon your batter into a prepared cake pan or 8x8 dish. Smooth out on top and then sprinkle raspberries evenly over top. They will sink down into the batter while cooking.

Now take the reserved 1 1/2 Tb sugar and sprinkle evenly over top of cake. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until knife in center comes out clean. Remove from oven and let sit 10 minutes. Then remove from pan to cool. Let rest for about 15 minutes before eating.

We served this with vanilla ice cream while still warm and it was very good. I could also see this as being a breakfast bread too, since it really wasn't that sweet.

More Berry Picking

We went again this morning to pick raspberries and strawberries again. The raspberries weren't quite ready so there weren't as many as there will be in a few days but I ended up with enough to freeze and use in a few muffin recipes, or whatever else I can come up with.

Ended up with 4 1/2 cups of raspberries and 12 cups of chopped strawberries. What should I do with these?!

Strawberry Freezer Jam

My friend called me up this morning and invited us to go pick strawberries so we tagged along and came home with about 6 1/2 lbs of berries. So I tried making freezer jam for the first time. I haven't really tried this but I did lick the spoon and it tasted just like my Gram's jam that I remember from my childhood. So glad it turned out. I'll have to wait 24 hours to check the consistency but even if it's runny it'll be perfect for ice cream!


Freezer Jam

2 pints (approx) strawberries, washed, hulled, and coarsely chopped
4 c sugar
1 box Sure-Jell Fruit Pectin for Homemade Jams and Jellies
3/4 c water
washed and rinsed containers to hold 5 cups of jam

Measure exactly 2 cups of chopped berries in a bowl. Stir in sugar.

It wasn't in this recipe but I smashed mine up with a potato masher and if I do this again might put them in the blender for a smaller size and more liquid consistency.

In small saucepan combine pectin and water. Turn burner on high to bring to boil stirring constantly. Continue stirring for 1 minute. Remove from heat. Stir pectin into fruit. Keep stirring until sugar almost completely dissolves. Pour into containers leaving 1/2 inch space at top for expansion during freezing. Cover containers and let stand at room temperature 24 hours until set. Refrigerate for 3 weeks or store in freezer for up to 1 year. Thaw in refrigerator.

I got 10 of the smaller jars of jam. Plenty for our family but we're heading back to the farm on Tuesday to pick raspberries and maybe more strawberries so who knows what I'll come up with next!