Category Archives: Apple

Apple Sour Cream Pie.

Posted in Apple, Dessert, Pie, Recipe, Vegan MoFo by

 

This MoFo has started to get the best of me. I am le tired! But so many posts left to do. What really helps me is writing my posts in advance and then just pasting them here when I’m ready. I never think recipe writing is lengthy until I actually sit down to do it. Enough of that. I took the last of my apples from apple picking and made them into pie and German apple cake. You’ve seen the apple cake, but now for the pie. I saw a sour cream pie over on Eat the Love that I really wanted to make, but haven’t gotten around to it. It’s blueberry-rhubarb which sounds incredible, but blueberries are over and I didn’t freeze any. I may still use frozen….those frozen organic wild blueberries a Whole Foods are actually quite delicious. Okay, apples, I’m talking apples. Apples and vegan sour cream. A relatively gross sounding combination which turns out to be crazy delicious all in your face.

Apple Sour Cream Pie

Adapted from Martha Stewart

Ingredients:

1 recipe double pie crust–use your fave

Topping:

1/2 c brown sugar

1/2 c unbleached cane sugar

1/2 c unbleached ap flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1 c walnuts, chopped

1 stick Earth Balance or 1/2 c

Filling:

1 c unbleached cane sugar

1/2 c ap flour

1 tsp cinnamon

pinch sea salt

one container vegan sour cream (My fav is Follow Your Heart brand)

2 flax eggs ( 2 tbsp ground flax, mixed w/ 6 tbsp water)

2 tsp vanilla

6 apples, peeled, cored and sliced (I used a mix of Granny Smith and Golden Delicious)

Method:

Preheat oven to 450°F.

For the topping, combine sugar, flour and cinnamon. Cut in the Earthy B with a pastry cutter. Add the walnuts. Refrigerate until ready to use. If your topping is super dry, add a little more Earth Balance.

For the filling, combine sugar, flour, cinnamon and salt. Stir in the sour cream, flax eggs and vanilla. Your mixture is going to be pretty thick and sticky, but it’s all good. Add the apples and really mix them around in there and coat them as best as possible. Pour the filling into the pie crust and bake about 10 min. Reduce oven to 350°F and bake about 45 min. Remove the topping from the fridge and sprinkle over the hot filling. Bake until the topping is browned and set, about 40-50 min. Let pie cool for a few hours before slicing.

* I had too much Earth Balance in my topping when I made this. I also took my photos the next day, so my crumb topping doesn’t look at all like crumbs. Either way it’s delicious, but the above steps/instructions were edited so that anyone wanting to bake this pie with get a crispy more crumbly topping than I did. :)

 

Just a Cheesey Apple Muffin.

Posted in Apple, Vegan MoFo by

I love, love, love apples and cheese. There are other fruit/vegan cheese combos that I love, but apples and vegan cheddar were meant for each other in the best kind of way. Since apple picking, I had an insane amount of apples that needed to be created into something delicious and preferably with vegan cheddar cheese. Since, I’ve done everything from scones, grilled cheese and a buckle, I thought hey!! How about a cheesey apple muffin?!? And then cheesey apple muffins were made.

 Cheesey-Apple Muffins

Ingredients:

1 c unbleached all-purpose flour

1c whole wheat flour

1 tsp sea salt

1 ½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp cinnamon

½ c unbleached cane sugar

1 c unsweetened non-dairy milk mixed with 1 tsp apple cider vinegar (I used So Delicious Almond Plus)

1 tsp Ener-G egg replacer (dry–not mixed with water)

½ c neutral tasting oil (like safflower or canola)

1 c Daiya cheddar style shreds

2 apples, chopped ( I used Honeycrisp–that I bought at the orchard. They don’t offer u-pick on those as girls like me would devour the entire orchard in like….an hour…… but Granny Smith, Golden Delicious or many others would work just as well)

Method:

Preheat oven to 375°F.  Mix all of the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the vegan buttermilk (non-dairy milk + apple cider vinegar) as well as the oil. Stir until just combined. Then add the cheese and apples and fold in to combine. Using a ¼ c as a measure, scoop batter into prepared muffin tins. You’ll end up with a little extra batter, so you can prep an additional muffin tin for a few extra or mini cake or loaf pan if you’d like something with a different shape. Bake for 18-20 min.

Muffins are delightfully moist from the apple bits, not too dense. :)

Apple Pickin’ + Apple-Cherry Pie w/ Cardamon & Black Pepper.

Posted in Apple, Cherries, Dessert, Pie, Recipe by

I had another glorious day on a farm last weekend. Just….glorious. A few friends and I headed to the Oak Glen area of Yucaipa to get our apple pick on. My favorite farm in the area is Riley’s at Los Rios Rancho, so that’s where we went. I’ve been to other farms out there and again, this one has been my running favorite for the past few years. Not only are they super helpful and friendly, but they have the best fruit. They offer u-pick raspberries, strawberries and several varieties of apples. While Riley’s is not a certified organic farm, all of the fruit is chemical free. I went a few years ago and got the best Gravenstein apples I’ve ever had, but they are no longer available for u-pick. The farm did have Granny Smith, Spartan, Red & Golden Delicious for u-pick when we visited though. Score. Super sweet 4 variety of u-pick apple score. 

We arrived at the tail end of raspberry season, so pickings were a little slim. Danielle and Brian combed the through the raspberry bushes and were able to get a pretty decent yield. The photos above are from a few years ago when I hit up the farm at the very beginning of apple season and the berries were out of control amazing. My friends and I left with a ton of them and I had to end up freezing a bunch because I went overboard.

Gravensteins from days of yore

On our recent visit, we were blessed with a beautiful, slightly overcast but cool day. It was the perfect backdrop for the day.

First up we headed to the Red & Golden Delicious part of the orchard.

Red Delicious Perfection. Photo by Danielle of Look Pretty.

Golden Delicious

The gangs all here picking Granny Smiths: Danielle, Brian, Michelle

Granny Smith

 

 

 

I’m always happy at a farm. :)

The yield: The two little ones in the bottom left corner are the only Spartans I was able to get. I took home a ton of Granny Smith & Red Delicious, as they were the most ripe.

And you know I wouldn’t go apple picking without making a pie when I got home! ;) This is the third Apple-Cherry pie combo, I’ve attempted. While the others weren’t awful, I think this one def hits the spot!

Apple-Cherry Pie w/ Cardamon & Black Pepper

Ingredients:

2 pie crusts (use your favorite recipe)

3 c Granny Smith apples, peeled and sliced

2 c tart cherries

1/2 c plus 2 tbsp unbleached cane sugar

1 1/2 tbsp unbleached all purpose flour

1 tbsp cherry brandy

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp cardamon

1/4 tsp cinnamon

pinch nutmeg

pinch salt

a few shakes of freshly ground black pepper

Method:

Preheat oven to 425°F. Combine all the filling ingredients in a medium or large mixing bowl and stir to combine. Roll out your crust and lay it into your pie plate of choice. If you’re feeling fancy, roll a little bit of black pepper into your crust. In retrospect, I should have done that and probably will next time. :) Once you’ve got your bottom crust in your pie plate. Go ahead and add the filling. If a lot of juice has accumulated in your mixing bowl, add 3/4 of it and discard the rest. Now, you can do any type of top you like. I did lattice and cut out some little leaf shapes with the scraps. Feel free to just cover up the whole pie though if you don’t feel like lattice or shapes, but remember to cut some vents for steam.

 

 

Peche.

Posted in Apple, Dessert, Peaches, Pie, Recipe by

Peche! My favorite non-english word for peach. Thanks France!

Recently I had the pleasure of returning to M&M Peach Ranch where some friends and I picked Bing cherries earlier this summer. Their Ryan Sun peaches ripened up at the end of August so a visit was in order. We took the longish drive out to Lake Hughes and delighted in picking the most delicious organic peaches. It was an absolutely lovely day, with lovely friends.

Mich!

Phil!

Before going home, we pulled over to frolic in this beautiful field of flowers. It was pure joy. :)

Photo by Phil Warren.

Me and my friend Mike. Photo by Phil Warren.

I went home and decided that my peaches ought to end up in a peach and blueberry buckle infused with tempeh bacon (inspired by Eat the Love of course!). They also ended up in a delicious Apple-Peach Pie w/ Bourbon and Rosemary Crust (recipe below). The remaining peaches that were not eaten were blanched, peeled and frozen. I think this new ice cream recipe from my favorite non-vegan baker extraordinaire may be order—veganized of course! ;)

The buckle is easy. Just roast your peaches with tempeh bacon and a drop or two of liquid smoke per Irvin’s instructions found here on his original post. Make the topping listed on Irvin’s site, subbing out the butter for Earth Balance and omitting the salt. For the cake, I just used the buckle recipe from Vegan Pie in the Sky, which is great. Don’t bake according to those instructions though, as they are a little different. You won’t be inverting this buckle as that book instructs you to do. Just use the batter in place of the non-vegan version and voila, BUCKLE in your mouth.

Apple-Peach Pie w/ Bourbon and Rosemary Crust

It’s hard to see the peaches in there with the apples, but I promise they are there in all of their juicy splendor!

Ingredients:

1 recipe of your favorite pie crust with one tbsp chopped fresh rosemary incorporated into the dough—I like the one from Vegan Pie in the Sky and Martha Stewart’s made vegan. Martha’s is the first crust I’ve ever made in a food processor. Kind of easy! I still like making it by hand though ;)

2 ½ c apples, peeled, cored and sliced

2 ½ c peaches, blanched, peeled and sliced

1 tbsp bourbon

1 ½ tbsp unbleached all purpose flour

½ tsp cinnamon

½ c unbleached cane sugar

1 tbsp brown sugar

splash of fresh lemon juice

Preheat oven to 425°F. Bake for about 10-12 min. Lower heat to 350°F and continue to bake pie for about 30-40 min.

Apple & Beet Pizettes.

Posted in Apple, Food, Recipe by

I saw these apple and beet pizettes on an episode of Giada At Home. I decided they need to be in my mouth and hence they were made. I found them quite delicious and I think you will too.

Apple-Beet Pizettes

Ingredients:

1 medium or large beet, sliced thinly with a mandoline or vegetable peeler

1 medium or large apple, sliced thinly with a mandoline or vegetable peeler (I used Pink Lady, but if you’re making these in the fall, Honeycrisp would be perfect)

about 1/2 c Daiya Mozzarella style shreds

1 recipe vegan fontina or creamy tofu ricotta (there are TONS of tofu ricotta recipes out there)

1 recipe pizza dough (I decided on a whole wheat dough) You can also use store bought dough from Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods

herbes de provence for sprinkling

a touch of cornmeal

Method:

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Roll out your dough into a big circle. Using a biscuit cutter or pint glass turned upside down, cut out as many dough circles as you can. Spread some vegan fontina or ricotta onto the circles. Top that with some Daiya shreds. Sprinkle on some herbes de provence and then top each pizette with a sliced beet and apple. Sprinkle on more herbes de provence if you please. Place pizettes on a pizza stone or baking sheet sprinkled with cornmeal. Bake about 12 to 15 minutes until Daiya is melted and dough starts to turn golden around the edges.

Apple-Lavender-“Goat Cheese” Galette.

Posted in Apple, Dessert, Recipe by

Herbs and fruit, I loves it. Add a tofu based vegan chèvre and some wine and you have yourself an afternoon. ;)

This is a pretty loosey goosey recipe. It really was thrown together with leftovers of all sorts. I used this recipe for the tofu goat cheese. It’s getting more and more difficult for me to accurately remember the specific tastes of certain non-vegan foods. I have to say, this probably doesn’t taste exactly like goat cheese, but I thought it to be a damn fine substitute and healthy to boot. Give it a try and see if you like it.

Apple-Lavender-“Goat Cheese” Galette

Ingredients:

1 pie crust

2 golden delicious apples

sugar to taste (I added enough to coat the apples)

a few splashes of freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 or ½ tsp dried lavender buds

tofu chèvre to taste

Method:

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Peel, core and slice apples. Place them in a bowl and squeeze some lemon juice on them and stir to coat. Add sugar and toss the apples once more. Add lavender buds and stir. If you feel like it, add a lil splash of vanilla extract.  Roll out your pie crust on a piece of parchment. Place your apples in the center of the crust. Gently fold over the edges of the crust, creating a free-form pie. Transfer the parchment paper (along with galette) to a baking sheet. Bake for 10 min at 400°F. Lower heat to 350°F and bake for an additional 20 minutes or thereabouts.

Lavender Apple Rhubarb Crisp.

Posted in Apple, Dessert, Recipe by

Spring has really inspired my treats this year. I worked in my garden the other week and added a bunch of new plants. It makes me so happy just to sit and look at them. Does anyone else feel that way about their garden? Of course you do J Today I went out and bought 4 different varieties of lavender and planted them. They look so cute, so small and innocent. Soon they will be giant lavender plants blowing up with their awesome purple flowers everywhere.

Speaking of lavender, how about a lavender springtime treat? I think it’s in order.

Lavender Apple Rhubarb Crisp

Ingredients:

Topping-

½ c pecan halves, coarsely chopped

1 c unbleached all-purpose flour

½ c unbleached cane sugar

¼ tsp salt

1 stick or 8 tbsp Earth Balance

Filling-

4 granny smith apples, peeled and sliced into ½” slices

3 tbsp fresh lemon juice

2 tsp vanilla

5 rhubarb stalks, cut into ¼” chunks

2 tbsp dried lavender, ground in a spice grinder

¾ c unbleached cane sugar

3 tbsp unbleached all-purpose flour

2 tsp cinnamon

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly oil an 8×8 baking dish.

Once the pecans are chopped, set them aside. Combine flour, sugar and salt. Cut in the Earth Balance with a pastry cutter and mix until it starts to resemble fine crumbs. Set aside.

Place the apples in a mixing bowl and toss with the lemon juice and vanilla. Add the rhubarb and all remaining ingredients. Transfer the fruit to the prepped baking dish. Sprinkle the pecan pieces on top of the fruit. Next, sprinkle the flour and Earth Balance mixture over the nuts. Bake 50-60 minutes. Served warm with a cold scoop of ice cream is the way to enjoy this treat.

 

Work in Progress: Butterscotch Apple Pie

Posted in Apple, Dessert, Pie by

A couple of weeks ago, I attempted to make my first gluten free pie. The filling was a complete success, well, because…how easy is it to make gluten free pie filling? Super easy. My crust, while not a total failure, left a lot to be desired. It had sort of a crunchy cookie-like consistency and tasted okay. It just wasn’t as delicious as I hoped it would be and the texture was much too crunchy. After all, I was going for a regular pie crust, not a cookie crust.

I saw the recipe idea on one of my favorite blogs, Eat the Love. Irvin used brown butter to infuse his crust with butterscotch flavor and did the same with the filling. If anyone has any ideas on a creative way to make vegan brown butter, let me know. That was the flavor I was trying to recreate. It worked more so with my filling, I guess because of some of the spices and other ingredients that you can use with filling and not in your crust. I hate to use butterscotch chips in a pie, but maybe that is the route I have to take. Does anyone know if they melt? Anyhow, the pie was not a complete failure, but needs improvements.

At least it holds a slice!

Apple Cheddar Hand Pies + Other Treats.

Posted in Apple, Food, Pie, Pumpkin, Recipe, Vegan MoFo by

Keeping up with this mofo-ing has been kooky. I haven’t really made much of anything exciting this week…but I did manage this Pumpkin French Toast.

Pumpkin French Toast.

Omg. I want more. I made this for a friend and I after our brains had been melting all day in the filthy 100° heat that we had the past couple of days. Way to make October gross California, I hope you’re proud of yourself. Anyhow, I opened the maple syrup and poured waaayyy too much on mine, but I still wanted to just eat this for the rest of my life. I don’t know where I’m going with this, but I guess what I mean to say is that everyone should have Pumpkin French Toast in their life. So, you know, get on it.

I also made this Spiced Banana-Pear Crumble. I don’t have a recipe for this, but if you want to make it, spice up 5-7 pears with 3 or so bananas with cinnamon and goodness. Make a crumble topping out of sugar and hazelnuts and Earthy B and then bake that sucker up.

Pear-Banana Crumble

Pear Banana Crumble: Innards

I’m thinking now that it wasn’t the best idea to begin blogging about treats when I am hungry with nothing but Luna bars and have to work, like right now. Well, after I talk about these hand pies. Hand Pies!!!

A few months back, I did a version of my larger, very delicious apple cheddar pie into a tiny hand held version. And this tiny version, I bring to chu! Who doesn’t love a pie that you can hold, oozing with hot delicious apple filling? Did I mention get in my mouth, I’m starving?

Apple Cheddar Hand Pies (I, far too often, hit the the T instead of the R and write “cheddat”)

Ingredients:

2 Golden Delicious apples, peeled, cored, and chopped

2 tsp fresh lemon juice

1/4 cup golden brown mascobado sugar

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

pinch ground nutmeg

pinch salt

2 tbsp Earth Balance

2 tbsp unbleached all-purpose flour

1  recipe flaky pie crust OR  1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed–if using Puff Pastry, I like Aussie brand

1 c shredded vegan cheddar, Daiya preferred

Method:

Preheat the oven to 425° F. Line a baking sheet with Silpat.

In a bowl, toss the apples with the lemon juice. Add the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt and toss to combine.

In a saute pan, melt 2 tablespoons Earth Balance. Cook apple mixture for about  7 to 10 minutes until the apples release some of their juices and are slightly softened. Sprinkle flour over the apple mixture and remove it from the heat.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the pie crust or puff pastry sheet. I made my hand pies into apple shaped mini-pies, but feel free to cut the pastry into squares, circles or whatever shape you want. Add the Daiya to the cooled apple mixture. Divide the apple mixture in the center of each circle square or shape you have. Make sure to leave a border, around an inch or so. Carefully fold into desired shape and crimp the edges to make sure each little pie is sealed. Place them on the prepped baking sheet. Make sure to cut a vent in each pie using a paring knife or fork. Bake about 20-25 minutes and eat ’til your heart’s content. :)

Apple-Cheddar Hand Pies

Apple Cranberry Pie.

Posted in Apple, Cranberries, Dessert, Food, Pie, Recipe, Vegan MoFo by

This MoFoing urvry-day is crayzay. I have to say, I’m sorta enjoying it though. Before I started this blog, I used to just post pictures on Facebook of what I was cookin’ up. I admit I kinda miss doing that, but I think a food blog is a much more appropriate forum. Plus, these WordPress posts link to my Facebook, so if there were people out there who enjoyed the slideshow, well, now they can enjoy it here? I’m Ron Burgundy?

So, for today’s MoFo post I bring to you another glorious pie. So many pies to make a so little time I say. I was originally doing this radical spiced pumpkin pie with black cumin and things, but I didn’t like the way it turned out. It was inspired by a cookbook recipe, but meh…. The taste of the filling was delish, but it left something to be desired….which….unfortunately, I think most vegan pumpkin pies do. I’ve made several different versions throughout the years and I haven’t been in love with any of them. They generally come out tasting good. But just good. And for pie, just “good” is not acceptable to me. I have, on the other hand, made ridiculous vegan pumpkin cheesecake. I think what I’m going to do is just make pumpkin cheesecake from now on and call it pie. Unless anyone out there wants to point me in the direction of a delicious vegan pumpkin pie recipe? Maybe there will be a crazy delicious one in Isa’s new book.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Pie

So, hopefully before MoFo ends, I will bring you a delicious recipe for a black cumin spiced pumpkin cheesecake pie. Like the one above, but better! But better.

For now, I bring you this delicious Apple-Cranberry Pie with a hint of Orange.

Pie!

Apple Cranberry Pie

Ingredients

Crust:

2/3 c unbleached all-purpose flour

1/3 c whole wheat flour

1 tsp unbleached pure cane sugar

1/2 tsp salt

6 tbsp Earth Balance

2 tsp apple cider vinegar

2 tbsp ice water–reserve at least 4-5 tbsp in the fridge in case you need more

Filling:

Juice of 1 orange

zest of 1 orange

5 medium apples, peeled and sliced–you want about 5 c

1/2 c unbleached pure cane sugar

1/2 c fresh cranberries—you can use frozen too, but don’t thaw them if you use frozen

1/2 c dried cranberries

1/4 c all purpose flour

1 tsp cinnamon

Topping:

1/4 c unbleached all purpose flour

1/4 c golden brown mascobado sugar

2 tbsp oats

1/2 tsp cinnamon

2 tbsp Earth Balance, melted

Method:

First, make the crust. Combine both flours, sugar & salt. Add your Earthy B in tablespoons or chunks. Use a pastry whisk to cut in the Earthy B and mix until you have that wet sand consistency. Add the cider vinegar and water. Mix until your dough comes together. Roll your dough out and shape into a flat disk or place in your pie plate and stick it in the fridge.

To make the filling, core-peel and slice the apples if you haven’t done so already. Then combine all of the other ingredients (including the apples) in a large bowl.

For the topping, melt your Earthy B in the microwave for a few seconds. Combine the Earthy B with the remaining ingredients in small bowl.

Preheat oven to 400°F. Roll out your dough and fit it into a pie plate if you haven’t done so already. Pour your filling into the prepared crust. Scatter the topping all over your filling. Bake the pie at 400°F for about 30 to 40 minutes, then lower the heat to 350°F and continue to bake an additional 20 minutes or so. If you have a pie crust ring, use it. If you don’t have one, check on your pie after 25-30 min–if the crust or topping is browning too quickly, place some foil over the pie loosely. You want the juice in the center of the pie to be bubbling. If you’re worried about burning, just keep your eye on the pie and it will turn out great. :)

Apple-Cranberry Pie