Bakers…Start Your Ovens! And yes, there is a recipe.

It all starts with the apples. As soon as the harvest begins, people (and I mean me) start thinking about baking. Why? Is it nostalgia since I grew up in the country near an orchard? Is it the cooler temps? Is it some primitive need making me feel like I have to warm the house with the oven running? I don’t know. All I know right now is that I am trying to drop a few pounds and all I want to do is bake. And after the apples will come the pumpkins and all the holiday baking to follow that. At least with the apples and pumpkins I can pretend it is healthy because there is fruit in it…yeah…riiiight!

As I have mentioned before growing up in the country was both a blessing and a curse. A blessing since we had plenty of fresh produce and I learned to do a lot of things I wouldn’t have had we lived in a city. However, for a person destined to live in a city, surrounded by concrete, it was a curse of boredom and ennui, poison ivy and bug bites, isolation from things I loved and desired. Being in the “wilds” is relaxing for some people (and you know who you are), but all I can think about when I am there is, “Why won’t my phone work?” “What is there to do?” “Is there any civilization?” “Is that another F-ing mosquito drinking my blood?!” I feel disconnected from myself. Isolated. I am happy for those folks who love the country and find it peaceful, but I am edgy and uncomfortable whenever I happen to end up there, unless I am cooking. Friends Bobby & Chris have a magnificent country retreat in upstate NY and when I visited they put me to work in the kitchen so I would feel more at home. That trip in 2010 was the first time I EVER felt sane in the country. (Moment of Truth – I miss October in NY for the leaves and the fall smells. It is the only time I really miss the east coast.) Perhaps it was the company. Perhaps the well mixed cocktails. Perhaps it was that I NEEDED to be disconnected. I don’t know, but I plan to go back there and figure it out, as soon as I can manage it. And of course I will cook with my friends.

In the meantime, I am preparing to bake. I think I will start with this coffee cake. It’s not REALLY a coffee cake (we all know those come from Entenmann’s in a white box with blue lettering and have delish brown sugar crumb on top), but it is a good substitute and it has fruit, so it is healthy…yeah…riiiight! I included the notes I plan to use whenever I get around to writing the dreaded cookbook.

Food Memories this week are a wild bunch – I was delighted to have my first ever dinner with food writer Al Mancini at B&B (delish and fun – more on that another time), cooking for charity, my semi-annual business (yes, I have a job) Open House, and a belated lunch for Friend Lynn’s birthday at Public House.

Lucy Zannon’s Apple Cake

As I’m sure you know, there are hundreds of ways to cook and serve apples, especially in baked goods. My Uncle Nick’s wife Lucy made this for my folks and then shared the recipe with my mom. During apple harvest time in upstate New York the air is scented with the aroma of everyone baking some kind of treat or other.

Mom shared this with me after I went apple picking and realized that I refused to make a dozen apple pies. Once again, my over zealous picking procedures left me with an overabundance of produce. While this is baking it makes the whole house smell great and it is a complete breeze to make.

3 eggs
1 c sugar
1 c oil
2 c flour
1 t baking soda
1 t vanilla
1/2 t salt
1 t cinnamon
2 c sliced, peeled apples – about 2 or 3 medium apples (I like Granny Smith)

Preheat oven to 350. Combine the first 3 ingredients and mix well. Stir together all your dry ingredients and mix into egg mixture. Beat until uniform in color. Stir in apples.

Spray a 13” x 9” baking pan with vegetable spray. Pour batter into pan and bake for 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Baking time can vary depending on how juicy the apples are. Be sure when you test that you don’t hit the apples, or the pick will always come back wet (I did that the first time and over cooked the cake).

Served warm or at room temperature this is wonderful as an accompaniment for coffee, a breakfast treat or a snack. I don’t ice or frost it, but I have decorated it with 10X sugar with the following method. Take a pretty paper doily or paper snowflake, or silicone template you buy and lay it on top of the cake. Place 10X sugar in a sifter and gently sift over the top of the doily. Carefully remove the doily trying not to spill any extra sugar on the cake. The pattern of the doily looks like lace on the cake. You may notice that the sugar is absorbed into the cake after a few hours, so if you are planning to decorate this for a pot luck, do it right before you leave the house, or bring the doily and sugar with you and do the decorating at the party.

And for your viewing pleasure – baked goods

Xmas Cookies