Sunday, October 30, 2011

Proper Apple Cider

We were invited to press cider with some of our old friends from high school and some of their friends. The property we were at belongs to one of our high school friends’ grandparents. They don’t live there anymore and don’t grow or raise anything there (besides having a few fruit trees), but they have an old apple press and a lot of other treasures I would love to sift through someday.




The apple press is the double-tub style, very popular in the early 1900’s and very good at extracting a lot of juice from the apples. These types of cider presses were originally operated by a hand-crank, but somewhere along the way, someone in the family attached a simple motor to the apple crushing part of the press to save a lot of time and energy.

I was shocked at how easy it was. We threw in the apples whole, with the skin, stem, and sometimes even leaves on them. The crushing mechanism pulverized the apples and some juice came out at that point. Once the tub underneath was full, we switched the two tubs, and the full tub would then be pressed. This is where we had to do a little work in order to press all the juices out of the crushed apples. I could not believe how much juice came out of so few apples. And the color was phenomenal – almost pink it was so fresh. The juice was delicious straight out of the press, but straining it got rid of some of the larger bits of apple that made it through.

The cider was sweet yet tart, and tasted just like eating a fresh apple. I have no idea what kind of apples we used as they came from various people’s apple trees in their backyards, but they made delicious cider. If you have the chance someday, this is an experience you don't want to miss... and cider so fresh and apple-y, you won't believe how good it is! 


Sunday, October 16, 2011

Leftover bread + eggs + milk = simple and delectable baked French toast

Friday night dinner:  “Rigatoni and Red Sauce” (one of my husband's childhood favorites) and a French baguette. Saturday morning breakfast: baked French toast. 

We love French toast, but have never tried it baked before. It sounded like a great way to use up the leftover bread, so I looked around for a recipe. I found that most of the recipes contained a lot of butter and sugar. I wanted a not-terribly-unhealthy breakfast dish, not dessert. I used a recipe from Epicurious.com as my inspiration. French toast is really just bread, eggs, and milk, so that’s pretty much what I did. We always add almond extract to our French toast because that’s the way my husband likes it. I think vanilla extract would be tasty as well.

Before baking, I topped it with granulated sugar for a little bit of sweetness and a crunch on top.  The neat thing about baking it is that the top was crunchy and underneath, it was really moist, almost like bread pudding.

Baked French Toast (serves 2-3)
½ baguette, sliced 1-inch thick (any French bread will work)
1-2 tablespoons butter
2 eggs
1 cup whole milk
½ teaspoon almond or vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
¼ teaspoon cinnamon (optional)




Arrange sliced bread in a 9 x 9 x 2 inch pan.  You may have to squeeze the bread a little to fit. Butter the tops of the slices of bread.


In a bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, vanilla, and salt. Pour mixture over bread. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Take out the pan about 20 minutes before you plan to bake it so that it comes to room temperature. Sprinkle the top with the sugar.


Bake at 425 degrees for about 20 minutes until the top is golden brown. It will be puffy when you take it out, but will fall after coming out of the oven. Let cool slightly before serving. Dust each serving with powdered sugar. We didn’t think it needed any syrup, but berries or other fruit may be good on top.

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Fresh-picked apple cake

A student of mine has an apple tree in her backyard that is producing an abundant crop, so naturally her family doesn’t know what to do with all of them. She decided to bring them to me, since she knows how much I love to bake. Wow, was I excited when I tasted them! They are small, crisp, tart, and just sweet enough. Exactly what I wish every apple was like.

I decided to look for a recipe for apple cake, something I had never made before. I wanted something easy without too many spices in it. I found a recipe on Epicrious.com for a French apple cake that was so simple and had received great reviews. I knew this was the one.

The recipe came from a cookbook called Around My French Table: More Than 300Recipes from My Home to Yours  and was created by Marie-Hélène Brunet-Lhoste, a French cook who rarely uses a recipe, but managed to write this one down. The only alteration I made was to leave out the rum.

The ingredients are simple – flour, baking powder, sugar, eggs, butter, vanilla, salt and apples. The method is also simple, the peeling and chopping of the apples being the most difficult part. The cake is cooked in a springform pan, and my only qualm with it was that it was a short cake. I would like it to be a little bit taller. Other than that, I wouldn’t change a thing.

Not only was the flavor of the cake excellent (I’m sure due to the fresh picked apples) and not too sweet, the texture was also amazing. Because of the moisture of the apples, it was almost like a bread pudding consistency. I decided to serve it (to my students, who loved it!) with lightly sweetened cinnamon whipped cream, which was a perfect compliment. I hope you enjoy it as well.

French Apple Cake (adapted from Marie-Hélène'sApple Cake)

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

Pinch of salt

4 large apples (if you can, choose 4 different kinds) – I used 6, since mine were small

2 large eggs

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Generously butter an 8-inch springform pan and put it on a baking sheet lined with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper and put the springform on it.


Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in small bowl.

Peel the apples, cut them in half and remove the cores. Cut the apples into 1- to 2-inch chunks.
In a medium bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk until they’re foamy. Pour in the sugar and whisk for a minute or so to blend. Whisk in the rum and vanilla. Whisk in half the flour and when it is incorporated, add half the melted butter, followed by the rest of the flour and the remaining butter, mixing gently after each addition so that you have a smooth, rather thick batter. Switch to a rubber spatula and fold in the apples, turning the fruit so that it's coated with batter. Scrape the mix into the pan and poke it around a little with the spatula so that it's evenish.

Slide the pan into the oven and bake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until the top of the cake is golden brown and a knife inserted deep into the center comes out clean; the cake may pull away from the sides of the pan. Transfer to a cooling rack and let rest for 5 minutes.

Carefully run a blunt knife around the edges of the cake and remove the sides of the springform pan. (Open the springform slowly, and before it’s fully opened, make sure there aren't any apples stuck to it.) Allow the cake to cool until it is just slightly warm or at room temperature. If you want to remove the cake from the bottom of the springform pan, wait until the cake is almost cooled, then run a long spatula between the cake and the pan, cover the top of the cake with a piece of parchment or wax paper, and invert it onto a rack. Carefully remove the bottom of the pan and turn the cake over onto a serving dish.

Serving
The cake can be served warm or at room temperature, with or without a little softly whipped, barely sweetened heavy cream or a spoonful of ice cream.

Storing
The cake will keep for about 2 days at room temperature and, according to my husband, gets more comforting with each passing day. However long you keep the cake, it's best not to cover it — it's too moist. Leave the cake on its plate and just press a piece of plastic wrap or wax paper against the cut surfaces.

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Flying off the plate


One of my best friends planned an airplane party for her son Zachary's 2nd birthday. Sidenote: she has an awesome blog: www.allboybycandacerae.com. I was in charge of making airplane cookies. How fun! I have a great sugar cookie and icing recipe that I used for my nephew’s birthday (for recipes, see http://anytimegourmet.blogspot.com/2011/07/boy-turns-one.html ), so all I had to do was design how I wanted the airplane to look.

Such cute invitations too!

I made a batch of the sugar cookie icing and left half of it plain so that it would look like a natural white color. This was the first layer on the cookies. I split the other half in half again and added red to one bowl and blue to another. I used the Wilton icing colors to make the red and blue really vibrant.


I didn’t have any piping bags, so I tried using small Ziploc bags to “pipe” the windows and stripes on the plane, but that didn’t work very well. The icing is a little bit runny, which is what makes it dry so smooth and shiny, but that also makes it difficult to pipe. I used toothpicks to create the design and although it took a little bit longer than I would like, they turned out great.


Zachary (and all of us) had a great time at his party, and the cookies were gone before the day was over!

The photo booth was also a big hit!
My hubby and I looking so serious at the airplane-themed photo booth