Apple Strawberry Granitas

Ever since schools have been canceled and we have turned to homeschooling, the school systems around my parts have been dropping lunches off to all the littles. Both my sisters with littles have been getting food every day and it is great and amazing and makes me less worried about all the kids that really depend on school for food. Thank you school systems for being awesome!

The thing with the food is that you get what you get. Just about everyday, packed with the lunches,are either applesauce cups or strawberry puree cups.

The little shits, well none of them eat them. I don’t know if they just don’t like them or are sick of them but yeah, they are really starting to pile up. And so sisters have been sending apple and strawberry cups my way and now I have shit ton too.

I figured I would just bake with them and that is what I have been doing, but I still have so many and it is way to hot to be baking all the time. What to do with an excess of fruit puree cups? Freeze them. And make them into granitas. Whats a granita? A granita is flaked frozen fruit, kind of like a slushy you eat with a spoon. And wouldn’t you know, once the applesauce and strawberry cups were frozen and called something else, the littles were all over them. I am a genius.

It also helped that is was like a 95 degrees out and when it is that gross, no one wants to eat anything that isn’t frozen. Blah. Too hot way too early!

So if you find yourself with an excess amount of fruit cups or just want to make a healthy and delicious cold treat for your littles or yourself, do this.

Now to the apple strawberry granitias!

The stuff. Applesauce cups and strawberry puree cups. If you don’t have the actually cups, you can use applesauce from a jar or homemade and make your own strawberry puree by tossing fresh or frozen strawberries into a blender. Easy peasy.

The apple and strawberry purees into a bowl

Mix together. Have a taste, it is delicious.

Dump mixture into a baking sheet or pan, preferably a metal one, and place in freezer.

After about and hour, once it is slightly frozen, remove from freezer. Grab a fork and scrape the puree to kind of fluff it up. Place back into freezer for another hour and repeat one or two more time until the texture is nice and fluffy. Once you like texture, place in freezer for another 1/2 to really freeze up.

When you are ready to eat, scoop and serve.

Once scooped, eat. Right away because frozen things don’t stay frozen for long!

-C

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Apple Strawberry Granitas

makes about 4 servings

• 2 applesauce cups (or 2 cups applesauce)

• 2 strawberry cups (or 2 cups strawberries pureed)

• 1 tablespoon sugar (optional)

Dump the applesauce and strawberry puree into a bowl. Mix together and taste. If you think it could use a little sugar, mix it in. Remember, once frozen, it won’t taste quite as sweet.

Dump mixture into a baking pan or sheet, preferable a metal one, and place in freezer. After about an hour, or once it has frozen a bit, remove from freezer, grab a fork, and scrape the puree to losses it up. Place back in freezer for another hour. Repeat with the fork one or two more times until the texture is that of fluffy ice. After the last scrape, keep in freezer for another 1/2 hour or so to get it really frozen again then when you are ready, scoop out into bowl and eat.

Any that doesn’t get eaten right away, keep in freezer. You can transfer to a smaller container with a lid.

Yeasted Appley Applesauce Bread

It is exactly that time of year. Apples galore, cool days in need of a little extra warm, meaning a warm oven is welcome, if not needed. It’s the best time of year, or at least one of them.

And so I bake bread. Sometimes just a roll, and sometime a loaf, almost everyday. I love bread baking because, well just because. Plus it’s what people want to eat and will always eat because I guess bread=love. Makes sense to me.

This bread was made from a small dip in the 2 gallons of applesauce I made the night before. (We had sooooo many apples). The mr isn’t the biggest fan of applesauce, says he would rather eat a fresh apple. I kind of get it, but dude, warm, chunky, slightly cinnamon-y applesauce… I mean, that is happiness right there. Right? Anyway, I am trying not to eat all the applesauce to my face by myself at once (it has been a challenge) and plus I needed to make the mr some bread, so I figured what the hell. I’ll just use applesauce as my liquid in the bread. And so I did and that is that and now that mr really like applesacue (when it is baked into bread)

This bread is a basic sandwich type bread. The apple taste is there but not overwhelming so it can be used for sandwiches of all kinds, toast, just eating with a smear od something, or not. Just a overall good loaf of bread with a little extra from the apple. And braided because I was feeling classy. It’s amazing what at little braiding of bread dough can do for your self esteem. Made me feel like I was the coolest person in the world. Haha!

Now to the bread.

The stuff. A few apples, regular all purpose and white whole wheat flour, salt, applesauce, maple syrup, yeast, and warm water.

First, shred some apple.

Applesauce, shredded apple, maple, yeast, and a little water get mix up and let to sit for a few minutes to activate yeast. Then the salt gets mixed in, along with all the flour. Stir until dough forms. Dough should be slightly sticky, ut not wet. IF wet, add a handful more flour. To dry, add more water.

Dump the dough onto a floured surface, cover your hands in flour, and knead dough for about 5 or so minutes, adding more flour as needed to keep dough from sticking, until the dough is a nice and cohesive texture.

Nice looking dough. Now roll dough into a ball.

Place dough in a clean wet or oiled bowl and cover with a damp cloth for one to one and a half hours or until dough doubles in size.

Dump dough onto floured surface.

Cut dough into 3 equal pieces and roll out into long longs.

Braid logs together. You can stop here bake it this way or…

After placing it on a parchment lined baking sheet, tuck the ends of the braids underneath each other and make it like this. Either way. And once you have the dough on the baking sheet, brush a little water or plant milk on top and let dough rest for 15 minutes of so while the oven preheats.

Before oven and after oven. Classy, right?

Then for shin and soft crust, rub warm loaf with some plant butter.

And for the hard part. Let it cool before slicing it. Ok sure, a little warm is fine, but wait at least 20 minutes (an hour would be best) and then eat you some bread.

Eat you some bread. That’s a t-shirt right there.

Happy Fall friends!

-C

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Yeasted Appley Applesauce Bread

makes pretty one loaf

• 2 cups all purpose flour

• 1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour plus more for kneading

• 1 cup unsweetened room temperature applesauce

• 1 large or 2 small apples ( about 2/3 cup shredded apple)

• 1/4- 1/2 cup warm water

• 1 tablespoon maple syrup or honey

• 2 teaspoons active yeast

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 tablespoon or so plant milk or water

• 1 tablespoon plant based butter (optional for rubbing on finished bread)

Grab the apples and shred them until you have 2/3 cup shredded apple. In a large bowl, mix together the applesauce, shredded apples, yeast, 1/4 cup warm water, and sweetener.and let yeast activate for a few minutes. Add in salt, the all purpose flour and the 1 1/2 cups white wheat flour. Stir together until dough forms. The dough should be a little bit sticky so if the dough seems to dry, add in 1/4 cup more warm water. If it seems really wet, add in a handful more flour.

Dump dough out onto a well floured surface and knead for about 5 minutes adding a little bit of flour to the counter as needed to prevent it from sticking. Once dough is cohesive in texture, roll into a ball and place into a clean wet or oiled bowl. Cover with a damp towel and allow the dough to double in size. Should take between an hour and an hour and a half.

Once dough doubles in size preheat oven to 400

Dump risen dough back onto a well flour counter. Cut the dough into 3 equal sizes and roll each piece into long logs about 20 inches or so long. Place each roll next to each other and braid. Grab a baking sheet and line with a piece of parchment paper. Sprinkle with a bit of flour and place braided dough onto sheet, either as a braid or if you want, like I did, wrap the braid around itself into a rounded braid situation. Tuck ends into each other and under the loaf. Brush the top gently with a little plant milk or water and let rest for about another 15 minutes or so.

After the rest, place dough into preheated oven. Bake for 35-45 minutes (Less if left long braid, more if wrapped braid) or until the top is a deep golden brown and when tapped on the bottom, it sounds hollow. Also can use an insta read thermometer and check temperature. You want it to reach 190 degrees.

Once bread is baked, remove from oven. If you want the top to stay a little crispy, don’t do anything but let it cool. For a softer, shinny crust, rub the top while it is still warm with some plant based butter.

Let bread cool completely before cutting.

Then eat it like you would eat bread. Any and every way.

Store cooled loaf in a airtight bag on counter for 2-3 days but if not eating that fast, slice and place into freezer. That way you can pull out individual pieces and toast as you want.

Apple Muffins with Peanut Butter Streusel

I am a firm believe in the healing power of food. Whenever anyone (that I like) gets some sort of medical percedure, I like to bring them something home cooked, weather it be dinner or a baked good,  you know, so they don't have to worry about starving to death. ( no one I have ever visited was ever starving) Food helps you heal and food makes you happy so bringing a healing person some food only makes sense to me. So when the mr's aunt recently had part of her knee drilled out, cleaned out and stuffed with human cadaver bone marrow ( pretty cool))  I baked her, her husband, and her kiddos some muffins.

Why muffins? Well I was thinking soup or a casserole, but the mr suggests I do a baked good instead. I was going to go with a cake, but then that can get kind of annoying and troublesome with a couple of kids. Cupcakes are to cheesy and don't send the right message of get well, (cupcakes say, run around.. sugar high!), a pie would have been nice, but I am not sure if the kids like pie. Then there are muffins.. muffins are perfect. Not terribly packed full of sugars and crap. A little more hearty, can be eaten as a snack, a dessert, or a quick breakfast, and keep for a good while.  I made them apple cause I gots a shit ton of apple and peanut butter cause protein is good and it just makes sense. 

Apple+peanut butter are BFF's and really, what human doesn't like peanut butter? 

So his aunt and family got the muffins, and the mr only got 1. I think he was really disappointed that I didn't save him another one or make more.  

Oh well. I guess I can make them again, if he is lucky. 

And I feel like I should say get we'll soon Sarrh, but this last is a badass and is already doing great,so I will just say, Hi Sarah, looking good!

Now to the muffins!

The stuff. Dry ingredients are flour, baking packing soda cinnamon and salt. Then we have applesauce, breon sugar, oil, vanilla extract and vinegar. For the streusel.... peanut butter, brown sugar, flour, salt and earth balance. (you could use butter if you want)

The streusel stuff goes into a bowl and gets mixed until it turns into a crumbly, soft dough and set aside.

Whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in one bowl, then in another bowl, mix together he applesauce, oil, vanilla,  sugar and lastly, the vinegar. 

Fold the wet into the dry, mixing just enough until incorporated. And remember….DON"T OVERMIX!

Now scoop batter into muffin pans. Use liners, or not… I usually don't but figured that lined muffins travel and keep a little better… plus I just found a bunch when I was cleaning out a kitchen drawer.

Streusel top those muffins!

A view from the side… Use it all, don't be shy, the crumble is there to be eaten… Oh, and lesson learned by me. Next time I make these I will give the streusel a little pat into each muffin, to really secure it to the tops. So yeah, you should do that.

Now into the ove they go!

Pull out to cool when the streusel is browned, the muffins are poofed, and a tester poked comes out clean.

The smell alone will make your mouth water and you tummy growl. 

A muffin win!

Happy Friday!  Do lots of fun fall stuff this weekend!

-C

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Apple Muffin with Peanut Butter Streusel

Makes 12 muffins

 Muffin Stuff

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 2 cups applesauce* (recipe here)
• 2/3 cups brown sugar
• 1/2 cup oil
• 2 tablespoons apple-cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Peanut Butter Streusel Stuff

• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/3 cup peanut butter
• 3 tablespoon  brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons  earth balance

* IF you are using homemade applesauce (you should!) A little chunky is good. Just make sure that there are no huge chunks. Also, if you applesauce is really thick, just add a bit of water to think it would. It doesn't have to be pourable, but it should have a bit of water content to it. 

Turn oven on to 350 and either grease or line a 12 hole muffin pan

In a bowl, combine all of the streusel stuff unit it becomes a kind of crumbly dough and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. In a separate bowl, mix together the applesauce,, brown sugar, oil, vanilla,, and vinegar. Pour the wet into the dry and fold in until  just fully incorporated, br careful to not over mix the batter.

Scoop equal amounts of batter into you muffin tin. Grab the streusel l topping and evenly distipute that all over the muffins, giving the topping a soft pat to make sure it stays put while baking. 

Place muffins in oven and bake for about 30 ish minutes, or unlit the streusel is browning, the muffins are poofy and a test comes out clean.

Remove from oven, pop muffins from tin, and let cool on a rack.

Serve as soon as you want. A glass of milk (plan, nut or cow) or a big old cup of joe goes really well with this muffin situation. 

Applesauce

Earlier this week, the mr and I took a little Vermont drive. We grabbed some coffee, went to the country side, down some dirt roads, and struck apple gold. This road was lined with apple trees.(no, it was not an orchard) Trees all over the place, of all sorts of different variety apples, just falling from the trees. It was crazy. So We stopped, tasted, and picked picked picked. We filled up the trunk of the car.

This is after a few days earlier we picked about 2 bushels of heirloom apples that are growing all around our garden.So yeah, we might have a few apples laying around the house

But we picked with purpose. The mr is in processes of making , from scratch, his own hard apple cider. He has 2 of these humngo 5 gallon glass carboys (is that what they are called) or glass jugs  that he was attempting to fill with cider. No problem right? We have an abundance of apples. Well that's all well and good, but guess what? We don't have a press. The mr didn't seem to see this as a problem. He will just borrow a juicer…HAHAHAH. that worked, for about 2 cups of juice, then the motor blew out. So I let him use my blender. He spent 4 house deseeding and blending apples to a pulp and squeezing the juice through a piece of cotton. It was ridiculous and amazing and he actually got about 3 gallons of juice through the process, which is now fermenting in the basement, but he did not get anywhere near the ten gallons that he was looking for. So next project… build an cider press.(seriously)

But we still gots about half of the shit ton of apples that we picked. Luckily,most of them are good keepers so I can store them for a while (until I eat them all) but some of them are starting to smell so super apple-y that I can tell that they need to be used  asap. And thats fine by me cause that just mean applesauce! 

Applesauce!!! It is a must, an apple season stable. Sure you can make all sorts of pies, tarts cakes, salads, pretty much apple anything, but applesauce is apple at it's most delicious  purest state( besides fresh). Plus applesauce can be used to make all of those  apple cakes, breads, salads and such. IT's also  what you do when you have any apples that need to be eaten, might taste a little on the meh side,are too sour, might look a little to funky to eat, or just because applesauce rocks and you want some. 

So yeah, applesauce is awesome-sauce and you need to make some May you apples be store bought, orchard pick, or wild foraged. Any apples will do!

Applesauce time!

The stuff. Apples, apple and apple. 

Cut up the apples, removing the seeds and stems. (peel if you really must)

Toss all those apples into a pot and add in a few couple of water. Place lid on the pot, stick one medium heat, and let it cook.

Until it looks like this.  Applesauce.. a little on the chunk side(the way I like it) but if you want it smooth, just use a masher or a blender to smooth it as much as you like. This applesauce is all about you my friend.

Spoon into jars… and into you mouth.

Add some stuff (cinnamon, peanut butter, fresh raspberries...) add to stuff, (yogurt, muffin batter, salad dressing…) or eat straight up. The possibilities are endless!

Happy Wednseday and Happy First day of Fall!!!

-C

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Applesauce 

Makes about 2 pints 

• 5-6 pounds apples (use any variety or varieties that you like)
• 2 1/1- 3 1/2  cups water

Note. I am not an apple peeler kind of lady. I get that some of you are, so by all means, peel your apples if you want. 

Chop apple into chunks, removing the seeds and the stem and toss into a heavy bottom pot. Pour in aout 2 cups water and stick on on a medium high heat and top the pot with  lid. After about 5 minutes, give the apple a good stir and turn heat to medium low. Let simmer for about 20-30 minutes, stirring every now and then, adding more water if needed, until the apple are completely soften and falling apart.  Turn burner of and  either with a masher of some kind, or even a wood spoon, smash apart any large chunks of apples. If you like a smooth sauce, add it to a blender and puree until you are happy with the consistency. Want it thinner, add a little more water. Thicker, cook a little longer.

Note that once it's refrigerated, it will become thicker too. Store in jars for up to a week (if it lasted that long)

Eat as is, or add  anything that you heart desires to it. Cold is great, warm is amazing. Can be used in just about any baked good or savory recipes that you can think up!