Category: Food

This is it: my hands-down most requested recipe.  For years, my mother has made it for church potlucks, family dinners, and even meetings of the Officers’ Wives Club (back before my dad retired from the army).  I made this cake just this past week for my science fiction/fantasy book group (we read Howl’s Moving Castle), and they all wanted the recipe, so here it is.

It’s a pretty unassuming-looking, humble cake, but once people try it, they usually want more.  I think it manages to be both elegant and down-home at the same time — what more can you ask for?

This cake is moist, dense, and chock full of apples.  As a finishing touch, my mother and I like to add a liberal sprinkling of sugar right when the cake comes out of the oven, making a crunchy crust that contrasts nicely with the chewy interior.

Some people like to add a half cup of toatsed chopped walnuts to the batter.  Those people don’t understand the nature of apple cake.

Fresh Apple Cake

• four large Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and chopped
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. nutmeg
• 3 cups flour
• 3/4 cup oil
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 1/8 – 1/4 cup sugar, for topping

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a big bowl, combine the chopped apples and sugar with a wooden spoon.  Add baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg and mix.  Add 3 cups flour and mix well.  (The mixture will seem dry, powdery, and cling to the apples.)

In a large liquid measuring cup, measure out 3/4 cup oil.  Add vanilla and eggs to the oil and combine with a fork or small whisk.  Pour liquid ingredients into the apple mixture and mix very well, using wooden spoon and spatula to scrape sides and bottom of bowl.  Keep mixing until flour is entirely combined — the batter will be very thick, the consistency of paste.  Pour batter into a greased 9″x13″ pan, smoothing top evenly with a spatula.  Bake for 60 minutes, or until center of cake springs back when lightly pressed with a fingertip.  (My oven runs cold, so I usually have to bake this cake for 80 minutes.)

When the cake is done, remove from oven, place the pan on a cooling rack, and immediately sprinkle liberally with sugar for the topping.  My mom likes to pour on enough sugar to make the cake disappear, but I think that’s overkill.

This cake is really, really moist, so all you need to store leftovers is a layer of aluminum foil, although I’ve left it uncovered for the night and found it still moist in the morning.

You can also bake this cake in two round 8″ pans, which lets you put the cake on a fancy glass stand or whatever.  Either way, you’ll find that eating this cake with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream may be a moral imperative for your family.

My friend Valerie keeps an amazing cooking blog called My Life in Food.  It isn’t fancy — there are no textured wallpapers, custom designed banners, or even much photography — but this is why it’s extraordinary: every SINGLE ONE of her recipes is trustworthy.

Valerie’s taste is always elegant and leans towards healthy.  She is fond of Latin and Asian cooking, and while the recipes vary in difficulty, they are all equally delicious.

I made her Chicken Veracruzana last week, and it was quite delish and very easy.  Here’s what the results were:

Not bad, eh?  And very easy to make — you basically layer ingredients in a Crock Pot and let it simmer away.  I only wish we’d had some corn tortillas, like Valerie recommended.  The corn flavor was essential for contrasting with the meaty chicken flavor.  But we ate it up anyhow!  Click on through for the recipe, and enjoy.

This is my mother’s baked bean recipe, and it’s the richest, thickest, yummiest one I’ve ever encountered.  My friend James requested that I give it to him (I brought them to a potluck last month, and he’s been thinking about them ever since), and why not spread the artery-clogging wealth with everyone I know?

These are so rich that I limit myself to only making them once a year, usually for July 4th.  Be wary of the long baking time — 3 1/2 hours — and plan accordingly.

Baked Beans

• one pound bacon
• one large yellow onion, chopped
• 3 cans pork & beans, drained
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 – 3/4 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup molasses

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Fry the bacon until crisp, reserving all the bacon grease.  Let bacon cool, then crumble into bits.  Use 1-2 tablespoons of the reserved bacon grease to cook the onion until soft, about 5 minutes.

In a large lidded casserole dish or bean pot, combine crumbled bacon, onion, beans, sugar, ketchup, molasses, and 1/4 to 1/2 of the reserved bacon grease, stirring until well mixed.

Cover the dish with its lid and bake for 3 hours, then remove lid and bake an additional 30 minutes.  Let cool for a good long while before you eat it; it retains heat well, which makes it great for taking to potluck suppers.

For the past week, we’ve had a wave of unseasonable warmth that I refer to as “Fool’s Spring” — it looks like spring, but it isn’t.  Just when you’re about to feel confident in packing away that moldering pile of snowpants and mismatched mittens — BOOM!  Winter strikes back!

Yes, we got about 4 inches of snow on Friday.  Sure, it’s melting away, but what better excuse to make Caramel Bottom French Toast?

This recipe is adapted from Martha W. Murphy’s excellent Bed & Breakfast Cookbook (out of print, but cheap used copies are easily found online).  The recipe is listed as “Skier’s Toast,” but I find that name to be unsatisfyingly bland for this divine concoction — thick-sliced bread sunk into a layer of golden caramel, then doused in egg batter before baking.  The result is crunchy-chewy, with the excess egg cooking into a sweet custard alongside the caramel.

The kids, for the first time ever, asked for seconds. Oh, and I’d like to give credit to my friend Becca for coming up with the new name for this treat.

Caramel Bottom French Toast

Note: this recipe needs to be refrigerated for several hours before baking, so plan ahead.  It’s convenient to prepare it just before bed, then bake it off in the morning.

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbs. corn syrup (you can also substitute Lyle’s Golden Syrup)
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 loaf French bread or a baguette, thickly sliced
• 5 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/4 tsp. salt

In a small saucepan, combine the syrup, butter and brown sugar; simmer until thick and bubbling.  Pour into the bottom of a 9″x13″ baking pan. 

Place the bread slices in the caramel, wedging them in tight.  You may have some bread left over.

In a mixing bowl, combine eggs, milk, vanilla and salt.  Whisk well, then pour evenly over the bread.  Cover and refrigerate a couple of hours or overnight.

Let the toast sit at room temperature while the oven preheats to 350.  Bake, uncovered, for 45 minutes.  Serve while warm!

I hosted a Soup Party at my house this past weekend — everyone who came brought a different kind of soup, and I provided crusty bread and dessert.

For dessert, I decided a nice contrast to soup would be tasty orange rolls.  For some reason, my brain had forgotten that everyone would be filled up with the aforementioned crusty bread, and then we’d be following that up with more bread.

But nobody seemed to care.  In fact, they all requested the recipe, so here it is.  It’s adapted from a (badly written) recipe I clipped out of Cooking Light years ago.  The dough is rich but tender, enriched with a little butter and sour cream, and the glaze is unusual — a orange-flavored sugar syrup that is tempered with more sour cream.  It’s advised that you consume these sticky treats with a fork.

Orange Rolls

For the dough:

• 1 3/4 tsp. instant yeast*
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup reduced-fat sour cream (do not use fat-free)
• 2 Tbs. butter
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 egg
• 3 cups flour, plus more for dusting while kneading

For the filling:

• grated zest from one orange
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 Tbs. butter, melted and cooled (this is for brushing on the dough before sprinkling on the filling)

For the glaze:

• 1/4 cup plus 2 Tbs. sugar
• 2 Tbs. butter
• squeezed juice from half of one orange (the one you just zested for the filling)
• 1/4  cup reduced-fat sour cream (again, do not use fat-free, it tastes like plastic)

To make the dough, combine yeast, water, sugar, sour cream, butter, salt, egg, and ONE cup of the flour in a mixer and beat until smooth.  Add remaining 2 cups of flour and mix until a soft dough forms, about 5 minutes.  Turn out onto a floured board and knead until smooth and elastic, adding extra flour to keep the dough from sticking to your hands.  Place dough in a greased bowl and cover, then let rise until doubled in size (about 1 hour 15 minutes).  While the dough rises, combine the sugar and orange zest for the filling (do not add the butter!). 

When dough has risen, punch it down and turn it out onto a board (I like to use a clean cutting board coated with cooking spray to prevent sticking).  Spray a 9″x13″ baking pan with cooking spray.

Divide dough in half; roll out one half into a rectangle, approx. 8″x10″ (I actually have no idea what size the dough was, I’m just estimating).  Brush the rectangle with 1 Tbs. of the melted butter, and sprinkle half of the zest/sugar mixture on top.  Beginning at the short end, roll up the dough into a big log, pinching the seam to seal it.  Cut the log into about eight rolls and place spiral-side up into the baking pan.  Repeat with the other half of the dough, using remaining butter and filling.  You may have to cut the second log of dough into only 7 rolls; I’ve never been able to fit more than 15 rolls in a pan.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Cover the rolls with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm spot for 25 minutes or until doubled in size.  When ready, bake the rolls for 25 minutes or until golden brown. 

While the rolls bake, prepare the glaze: Combine sugar, butter, and orange juice in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.  Cook for 3 minutes, or until sugar dissolves.  Remove from heat, let cool slightly, and stir in sour cream.  Drizzle glaze over warm rolls; let cool for 20 minutes before serving.

*Note: You can substitute the instant yeast with 2 1/4 teaspoons dry-active yeast.  Just proof it in the warm water with a pinch of sugar before combining it with the other ingredients.

We are drowning in apples.  There are bags and bags of them sitting on the front porch, and even though a significant portion of them are inedible (wormholes) there are many, many more that can be used.  So, we’ve been hauling out any and all apple recipes from our personal stash.  Here’s one of my favorites; it’s been an autumn dinnertime staple for my family since Brian and I were newlyweds. 

Apple-Sausage Biscuit Pie

• 1 lb. chicken sausage, casings removed
• small onion, chopped
• carrot, peeled and chopped
• 1 celery stalk, chopped
• 1 big apple, cored and diced (leave peel on)
• 1/2 tsp. freshly ground pepper
• 1/2 tsp. dried thyme
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 3/4 cup chicken stock

for the biscuit crust:

• 2 cups flour
• 4 tsp. baking powder
• 2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup pure vegetable shortening
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/2 cup sharp cheddar cheese, grated

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Make the biscuit crust: in a bowl, combine dry ingredients, then cut in vegetable shortening until mixture resembles coarse meal.  Add milk and mix until just moist and combined.  (Note: doing this is a pain.  I have a food processor now, which makes the biscuit crust very easy to make.  Before the advent of the processor, I scrapped the homemade crust in favor of Bisquick with cheese sprinkled on top.  Because while there are many ways of going crazy-go-nuts in this world, doing so while holding a pastry cutter is not one I endorse.)  Set the biscuit crust aside until ready to use.

Anyway, get out a big ovenproof skillet and cook up the chicken sausage, then remove to a small bowl.  Add onion, carrot, and celery to skillet and cook for about 3 minutes, then add apple and cook for additional 6 minutes.  Add salt, pepper, and thyme and stir well, then add flour and cook for a minute.  Stir in chicken stock and cook for a few minutes more, then add chicken sausage back to skillet.

When everything’s nice and hot, remove skillet from heat and use a spoon to dollop the biscuit crust on top of the sausage mixture, spreading it around to cover everything well.  Sprinkle the shredded cheddar cheese on top, then put the skillet in the oven and bake the whole thing for 20-25 minutes, or until the crust is a golden brown.

I can’t make any promises that there won’t be certain individuals in your household who will eat the crust and none of the filling.  But you can always take heart that this just means more savory filling for yourself.