Back--With Apple Cobbler

As you may know, we've been away for several weeks. First, it was our vacation to Santa Fe and Telluride

to sleep late, enjoy some great meals, and witness the glorious change in the aspens in the high-elevation passes.

Then we were a week in California, doing publicity events and shooting Thanksgiving videos for chow.com. (More on those soon.)

And then we were in New York for a week on a photo shoot for a celebrity book we ghost-wrote. (Can't say a word more on that one--sorry.)

Whew. Poor Dreydl doesn't even know where he lives. But we're back--and it's apple season for sure in New England. A ripe apple right out of the orchard will almost unfit you for apples the rest of the year. A treat indeed.

So we need to do something with these babies. How about an old-fashioned cobbler with a brown sugar/pecan biscuit topping? Sounds good? Then let's do it.

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Apricot Rhubarb Crisp with an Oat/Pecan Topping

I've betrayed my Southern roots. Well, in so many ways. By not having heirloom china, for one thing. But also because I prefer--get this--crisp to pie.

Yep, all too true. My ancestors are rolling over in their Pea Ridge and Lookout Mountain battlefield graves. But so be it. I'm too in love with that crisp topping, the fruit down in. I like the crunch, the luxurious softness, all together in one spoonful.

You know that's how we experience satiety, right? By a greater range of textures, even more than tastes. It's all in our seven-step plan to get off processed food, the book for which this blog was named (here).

So all said and done, I want more crisp. And now that fruit is coming back into our lives after this long winter, I want one now. Particularly with a pecan crunch topping. Ready?

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Whole Wheat Pear Upside-Down Cake

As you may know, Bruce and I have begun working on a whole grain book--all main-courses, quinoa to barley, tritacale to buckwheat. It's not due to the publisher until later this year--and not out until next year. But if you've followed this blog for a while, you've seen the beginnings of the idea for that book in the wheat berry and quinoa salads that have made frequent appearances here.

While there will be no sweets or breads in that book, I've lately become obsessed with desserts made with whole grains. Admittedly, I'll never get the soft, luxurious texture of a cake made with all-purpose flour. But I am getting something else: a big hit of whole grains, something every single one of us needs in our food choices.

As we said in REAL FOOD HAS CURVES, always go browner, whenever you have a choice. To that end, I'm baking up a storm.

One note before we get going: this recipe calls for whole-wheat pastry flour, a very finely ground whole grain flour. It's sometimes known as "graham flour." Bob's Red Mill makes a good one--click here. Do not use whole-wheat flour--which is too coarse. You need a fine-ground soft wheat with the bran and whole-grain goodness intact. If you must make a substitution, use half cake flour and half regular whole wheat flour.

OK, on to the recipe.

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Apple Crisp

Well, there it is, ready to go into the oven. Pretty fine, eh?

I promised some recipes that use the sugars I discussed in the last post. So here's one, a perfect dessert for a fall evening--or really anytime.

It's also made with walnut oil--which got used in the Apple Cake here. But any nut oil would work for the topping. You could even use melted butter. Wow.

This recipe has also been adapted from THE ULTIMATE COOK BOOK. There's a mix-and-match cobbler/crisp section in that book: seventeen fillings and ten toppings. Here's the apple version with an oaty, maply, nutty, crunchy topping--and with a less-refined sugar, to boot. (That said, I'll give you some "standard" substitutions as we go through the recipe.)

Honestly, I have to hold myself back from picking off that topping, leaving the fruit behind--and I love apples! You won't need any whipped cream or ice cream with this one--although I wouldn't stop you from putting a dollop or a scoop on mine if I come to dinner at your house.

Let's get to it.

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Apple Cake

Apples are in! (At least around us in New England.) They're appearing by the bushel and the peck, despite the drought we've experienced for the past several months.

Natch, it's time for Bruce's apple cake. I can't believe I haven't shared this recipe with you before. It's a staple in our house--even a great breakfast cake, as you'll see.

It's also an old recipe, one he got from his grandmother. In fact, the beat-up, stained recipe card calls it "Israeli Apple Cake." I don't know about the Israeli part (are there apples in Israel?), but I do know she used a tasteless oil for the batter. Blech. If we know anything about real food, we know there's no satiety there. So Bruce has morphed the recipe with walnut oil. Yum.

As you know, we're nuts about nut oils. But one warning: they don't move off the supermarket shelves quickly. If you get a bottle home and it smells rancid when opened, take it back for a full refund! Or consider buying nuts oils from sites like amazon.com. You can find the whole La Tourangelle collection there. Check this out for a three-can supply. Plus, it's lots cheaper than at the grocery store. And if you look up the six-can packs, it's even cheaper. Just make sure you store them in the fridge before and after opening--because all those omega-3s and polyunsaturated fats go whangy pretty fast at room temperature.

Enough with the blather. On to the cake. Did I mention it's a one-bowl wonder? Indeed.

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Roasted Pears

OK, brace yourself. I warn you: I wasn't prepared for this.

Roasting? Pears? I know about poaching. And just eating them raw. But roasting?

Apparently, Bruce got this idea from Chanterelle, the long-lamented, there-forever-but-somehow-goon-too-soon, five-star restaurant in New York City. Chef David Waltuck was kind enough to give us a quote for the back of our HAM tome. And these were apparently quite the hit in the restaurant. I wouldn't know. I just know Bruce's morphed version. And wow, I wasn't ready.

Hope you are. . . .

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Peach Crisp

We're almost done. Here in rural New England, the peaches are almost finished. And what a season it's been! It was so warm early and so wet early and then so very dry now that the berries and stone fruits have been in ridiculous abundance, sweet and juicy, almost beyond belief. We'll see if this current dry spell bodes well for tomatoes in the weeks ahead. But for now, peaches are making their last fling.

Which means we're stocking up. When we see peaches, berries, plums, or cherries in the markets, we go for it, buying way more than we need, then freezing them for the winter ahead. (Stone fruits like plums, cherries, and peaches should be pitted--the larger ones, sliced. Berries can go into the freezer as they are.) None will then be worth eating on its own. But a peach crisp in December is a thing of beauty indeed!

While we're on the subject, let's just say that frozen fruit is real food, no doubt. In fact, frozen fruit is often a better choice. If the peaches in December have been trucked to the store from Chile or Morocco, you're better off buying the sliced frozen ones in bags. The ones trucked in were picked green and won't be worth much for their taste. The frozen ones were picked at the height of ripeness, even by large-scale growers, and flash-frozen, often right in the fields. These fruits and berries (and vegetables, too) retain more of their essential nutrients--and taste!--than those brought over thousands of miles.

In fact, frozen vegetables are often picked at a better stage than the fresh ones going to a standard supermarket. The ripe green beans and carrots, the ones ready to eat now, are culled for the freezer truck. The less-than-ripe veggies and fruits are then packed for longer shelf-life at the store. So if peaches are out of season where you live and you want to make this peach crisp, consider the sliced ones in the freezer case--provided there are no chemical shenanigans going on in the package. (Read those labels!)

OK, the crisp.

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Rhubarb Crisp

Have I told you this? Besides being a cookbook writer and all-around eater, I'm also a news junky. I read several papers a morning, follow a whole host of political blogs of all persuasions.

So I was a little irritated by that grouchy op ed from E J Dionne in this morning's Washington Post. Yes, it's Memorial Day here in the U. S. And yes, it's about honoring our war dead. And yes, it's important.

But no, I'm not laying the bunting over graves today. I'm doing what most Americans are doing: enjoying the first taste of summer bliss, of the peace that passeth hot weather. It seems to me that's a great way to honor those who have died: I'm at peace in the world they helped to create. I'm not going to argue just wars or unjust wars today. But soldiers die hoping that those left behind will live in some sort of peace and contentment. Politicians and bureaucrats go to war for other reasons, many of them not worthy of celebration. But soldiers die for hope. And today, in the sunshine, enjoying the beautiful weather, gardening and working in the yard, I think I'm honoring that hope. The peace that passeth hot weather.

Bruce is about it his own way--which mostly means cooking great food, his peace, about like this rhubarb crisp, a fantastic treat this time of year.

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Rustic Peach Blueberry Tart

Summer's all about the fruit. (And veggies, but that's another matter entirely.) As I finish up our step-by-step plan to get off all fake, processed food (due, oh, next week to the publisher!), I'm struck by how easy it is this time of year when our market's are bursting with copious abundance. So in the spirit of summer, here's a great tart Bruce came up with on the fly. Watch the twists in the recipe. I think they're really cool.

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Summer Pudding

We were sitting in a small cafe in New York a few years ago, back when we lived in the city, and a friend breezed in, hot from a morning walk, blotting her forehead. She saw us, waved a drippy hand, and said, "Have you made your summer pudding yet?"

There are stranger how-do-you-dos, I suppose. Especially in New York. But this one certainly took us back. We shot each other that look that married couples perfect and said, "Um, no."

Well, I'll give her this: summer pudding has since become a necessity around here, an old-fashioned, unmolded, British dessert that requires minimal effort in the heat but pays off big time when served. Plus, it's made with white bread. The kind that I grew up with. (Or as we used to say in the South, "that I come up on.") Sliced sandwich bread. OK, not the stuff with hydrogenated oil and corn syrup. Blech. Instead, sliced white bread that's heavenly soft without anything fake in the mix.

Here's the way to get a summer pudding done.

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