We had a bunch of dried out bread heels and odds and ends in the cupboard, so I decided that a bread pudding was in order. I had to increase the amount of custard called for by quite a bit. But my bread was also very, very dry, so I think it needed a bit more liquid than expected to properly hydrate it. I'm also not sure exactly how much bread I used. I just kept putting in bits until it looked like a good amount for the baking dish. I also used a mix of fresh and dried apple rather than purely dried as called for in the recipe. I think I'd put even more fresh apple in next time!

Photo goes here.

Apple Bread Pudding

Adapted from Dessert of the Day by Kim Laidlaw

Ingredients

• stale bread (enough to cover bottom of 23x33cm baking dish), cut/broken into 3cm chunks
• 1-2 apples, peeled and diced
• 1/2-3/4 c. chopped dried apple
• 2 Tbsp. raisins or dried currants
• 2 1/2 c. whole milk
• 4 large eggs
• 6 Tbsp. brown sugar
• 2 tsp. ground cinnamon, divided
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• pinch of ground nutmeg
• 2 Tbsp. sugar

Directions

1. Grease a 23x33cm baking dish.
2. Scatter the bread in the bottom of the baking dish.
3. Scatter the apples and raisins on top.
4. Beat the eggs and brown sugar into the milk.
5. Mix in 1 tsp. of the cinnamon, the vanilla, and the nutmeg.
6. Pour the custard over the bread and set aside for 30 minutes, pressing the bread down into the custard periodically.
7. Meanwhile, mix the remaining cinnamon with the sugar and set aside.
8. Preheat oven to 160°C (325°F).
9. Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar over the surface of the pudding.
10. Bake at 160°C (325°F) for ~1 hour.
11. Allow to cool for 20 minutes before serving.
12. Serve with vanilla ice cream and/or whipped cream.

Fall Fruit Crumble with Feijoas and Almonds

This was originally supposed to be a pear and feijoa almond crumble, but I decided to do it with a mix of apples and pears and up the feijoa content. I also reduced the almonds slightly and added in some rolled oats to give it more of the classic crumble texture.

Fall Fruit Crumble

Adapted from NZ Women's Weekly

Ingredients

Fruit Mixture

• 2 pears, peeled and chopped
• 3 apples, peeled and chopped
• 6 feijoas, scooped and sliced
• 2 Tbsp. sugar
• 6 Tbsp. water, divided
• 1 Tbsp. cornstarch (cornflour)

Topping

• 1/2 c. ground almonds
• 1/4 c. flour
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 1/4 c. brown sugar
• 80g butter
• 1/2 c. rolled oats
• 1/4 sliced (flaked) almonds

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
2. Combine pears, apples, feijoas, sugar, and 1/4 c. of the water and bring to a boil.
3. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until fruit is tender.
4. Combine the cornstarch with the remaining 2 Tbsp. of water to make a slurry.
5. Stir the slurry into the fruit mixture and cook until glossy and slightly thickened (1-2 minutes).
6. Dump the fruit mixture into a 23cm (9") square baking dish.
7. Combine the ground almonds, flour, sugars, and butter and thoroughly combine.
8. Mix in the oats and almonds.
9. Crumble the topping over the fruit.
10. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 20-25 minutes.
11. Serve with cream or ice cream.

We had to clear some things out of the freezer when we swapped the fridge over and that left me with a batch of sourdough pastry that needed using. In theory this pie is meant to have a spiced almond-spelt pastry, but I figured the sourdough pastry would work just fine. And I took the spices that were meant to go into the pastry and added them to the filling instead.

The result was okay, but not great. That said, it was the filling, not the pastry that was the issue. The recipe called for "apple purée". I had a can of unsweetened applesauce on hand, so I used that and then added a sliced apple to make up the missing volume. I don't like how mushy the filling came out though. I think next time I'd just use sliced apples rather than sauce or purée. The recipe also didn't make enough filling, so I ended up having to chop up a couple of extra feijoas to add to the mix. I also feel like it could've done with more spices and a little extra sweetener as well. So, all-in-all, probably not one that I'd bother making again. At least not in this form. But I'm glad that I tried it.

Apple-Feijoa Pie

Adapted from NZ Women's Weekly

Ingredients

Pastry

• sourdough pastry
OR
• 125g butter
• 1 1/2 c. ground almonds
• 1 1/2 c. spelt flour
• 2/3 c. sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 Tbsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 2 large eggs

Filling

• 2 c. chopped feijoa flesh
• 2 c. sliced apples
• 1/3 c. honey
• 1/4 c. brown sugar (optional)
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract (if using sourdough crust)
• 1/2 Tbsp. ground cinnamon (if using sourdough crust)

Topping

• 1 egg, beaten
• 2 Tbsp. sesame seeds or sugar

Directions

1. For spelt pastry, add butter, almonds, flour, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and baking soda to a food processor and pulse until mixture looks sandy. Then, with processor running, add eggs, one at a time, and process until mixture comes together. For sourdough pastry, follow instructions for that recipe.
2. For either pastry, chill for ~30 minutes before continuing.
3. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
4. Roll out 1/2 to 2/3 of the pastry and use it to line a 23cm (9") pie plate.
5. Combine the feijoas, apples, honey, brown sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon (if using) and dump into the pie shell.
6. Roll out the remaining pastry and use it to make either a plain or a lattice top for your pie, then crimp the edges.
7. Brush with egg and sprinkle with your choice of sesame seeds or sugar.
8. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 35-40 minutes.
9. Serve with cream or ice cream.

This salad is meant to be made with grated, freshly roasted beets. I didn't have any fresh beets and didn't really have the energy to roast, peel, and grate them anyway. So, instead, I used tinned, sliced beets and just julienned them for the salad. I'm very pleased with how this worked out and would absolutely do it again.

Polish Cold Beet Salad

Slightly adapted from Everyday Healthy Recipes

Ingredients

• 1 (450g) can sliced beetroot, julienned
• 1 apple, peeled and grated
• 1 small red onion, minced¹
• 2 dill pickles, grated²
• 2-3 tsp. oil
• 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
• salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
2. Cover and chill for at least 30 minutes before serving.
3. Adjust seasoning to taste.

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¹ I didn't have any red onion on hand, so I just used some dried onion flakes in my salad. ^Back
2 Since my beets were already pickled, I just used two small/baby dills in my salad. If you're using unpickled beets, then I'd recommend using 3-4 baby dills or 2 larger ones. ^Back

Here's another one out of my NZ backlog. It was pretty good, but it makes a lot. Possibly best when you have a bunch of other people to share it with.

Creamy Coleslaw with Green Apple and Parsley

Slightly adapted from Vegetable of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 900g cabbage, shredded
• 2-3 ribs celery, thinly sliced
• 1 Granny Smith apple, grated
• 1 onion, grated
• 2 small carrots, grated
• 2 Tbsp. cider vinegar
• 2 Tbsp. minced flat-leaf parsley
• ~1 c. mayonnaise
• salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Combine the cabbage, celery, apple, onion, and carrots.
2. Drizzle with vinegar and toss to coat.
3. Stir in the parsley and mayonnaise.
4. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Add an extra few Tbsp. if needed to achieve desired consistency.
5. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
6. Taste again and adjust seasonings as needed.

I've been meaning to make this for over a week now. But I just kept not quite getting to it. I bought all the apples for it, but then either didn't have the wherewithal to make dessert or ended up making something else instead. But! I finally did it! And it was both easy and delicious!

It also made a great way to use up some of our "sweet" bits of stale breadstuffs. (We've used up all of our savoury/neutral bread heels and odds and ends, but we still have a lot of fruity or otherwise slightly sweet stale breads in the freezer.) In this particular instance, I decided that stale chocolate-orange scones would be a good fit. And they were! The chocolate and citrus complemented the other flavours quite nicely. And although the texture of the chopped up scones was different than breadcrumbs, it certainly wasn't a difference that I minded.

I think the only change I'd make next time is cutting back the sugar slightly. This was excellent, but at bit over-sweet for my tastes. (And I doubt that making it with savoury breadcrubs would've made that much of a difference.) The original recipe called for half a cup each of white and brown sugar. But I think I'd be tempted to leave out the granulated sugar next time and just make it with brown sugar. Thath seems like it should be plenty sweet enough!

Apple Brown Betty

Slightly adapted from Dessert of the Day by Kim Laidlaw

Ingredients

• 200g fresh breadcrumbs, toasted
• 1/2 c. brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 6 Granny Smith (or similar tart apples), peeled and sliced
• 6 Tbsp. butter, chopped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease a casserole dish.
2. Combine the breadcrumbs, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg and mix well.
3. Add the apples and toss to combine.
4. Add ~1/3 of the apple mixture to the prepared dish and dot with 1/3 of the butter.
5. Repeat layers twice more, ending with butter.
6. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 1 hour.

I keep meaning to make another strata for breakfast but being too tired to put it together the night before and sleeping in too late to put it together the morning of. So, instead of strata, we had pancakes this morning. These are nice apple-pecan pancakes with a bit of oatmeal and cinnamon. (The original recipe called for walnuts, but the pecans were on top and I like them better anyway, so I just used them.)

I used a mix of white and whole wheat flour for my pancakes today. But I think I'd be quite happy to make them with 100% whole wheat flour next time. Or, if you adjusted the proportions a bit, you could easily do them up as sourdough pancakes instead.

We had some leftover chocolate from an earlier dessert, so I re-melted it by sitting the dish it was in inside the bowl of hot oatmeal and served it as a topping for these nutty, fruity pancakes. The Kidlet had hers with melted chocolate and maple syrup. And I opted for sliced bananas and a small drizzle of melted chocolate on mine. They were delicious!

Autumn Pancakes

Slightly adapted from The Big Book of Breakfast by Maryana Vollstedt

Ingredients

• 1/2 c. quick oats
• 1 1/2 c. boiling water
• 3 Tbsp. butter
• 180g whole wheat flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 3 Tbsp. sugar
• 1 c. milk
• 1 large egg
• 1-2 apples, peeled and chopped
• 1/4 c. chopped pecans or walnuts

Directions

1. Pour the boiling water over the oats and let stand for 5 minutes.
2. Add the butter and set aside.
3. Sift the baking powder into the flour.
4. Add the cinnamon and sugar and mix well.
5. Beat the egg with the milk.
6. Pour the egg mixture into the dry ingredients along with the oat mixture. Stir to combine.
7. Stir in the apples and nuts.
8. Preheat a tawa or skillet over medium heat.
9. Grease as needed.
10. Working with ~1/4 c. of batter at a time, pour it onto the hot tawa.
11. Cook until bubbles form in the surface and edges begin to look slightly dry.
12. Flip and cook until both sides are golden brown and pancake is cooked through. Transfer to plate.
13. Repeat cooking process with remaining batter.
14. Serve with fruit, syrup, melted chocolate, and/or whippped cream.

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Variations

Sourdough Autumn Pancakes

Ingredients

• 1/2 c. quick oats
• 1 c. boiling water
• 3 Tbsp. butter
• 60g whole wheat flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 3 Tbsp. sugar
• 1 c. milk
• 250g sourdough discard @ 100% hydration
• 1 large egg
• 1-2 apples, peeled and chopped
• 1/4 c. chopped pecans or walnuts

I'm used to stratas being savoury dishes. Layers of bread, maybe some sausage and/or veggies, probably cheese, and then eggs or custard to bind it all together. Baked up into a tasty breakfast dish.

This one is a bit different. It's a sweet strata! Basically a layered bread pudding. Full of apples, raisins, spices, and a lightly sweetened custard. And served with maple syrup. Rather than cheddar or mozzarella (as I might normally expect for a strata), it uses cream cheese.

I think, on the whole, I prefer my savoury stratas. But this was definitely a nice way to mix things up a bit. And the Kidlet loved it!

Apple Strata

Slightly adapted from The Big Book of Breakfast by Maryana Vollstedt

Ingredients

• 6 slices stale bread, cubed and divided
• 125g cream cheese, cubed
• 2 apples, peeled and diced
• 1/2 c. raisins
• 6 large eggs
• 1 1/4 c. milk
• 1 Tbsp. brown sugar
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp. ground cloves

Directions

1. Grease a 23x23cm (9x9") square pan.
2. Place half of the bread cubes in an even layer in the bottom of the pan.
3. Scatter the cream cheese on top.
4. Layer the apples on top of this and sprinkle with the raisins.
5. Beat the eggs with the milk and mix in the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.
6. Pour the custard over the strata.
7. Cover and set aside to allow the bread to soak up the custard for at least an hour and as long as overnight. (Store in the fridge if there will be more than 2 hours between assembly and baking.)
8. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F)¹.
10. Bake strata at 180°C (350°F) until custard is just set (60-75 minutes).
11. Serve topped with icing sugar and/or maple syrup.

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¹ The original recipe says to bake your strata at 190°C (375°F) for 55 minutes. Mine was very dark on top after only 45, but still raw in the centre. I ended up covering it with foil and baking it for another 10 minutes and then reducing the temperature to 180°C (350°F) and baking it 10 more minutes. So, I think next time I'd just start it out at 180°C (350°F) and bake it for a bit longer to make sure that everything gets cooked through without burning. ^Back

I finally made a successful batch of jelly!

Okay, it's maybe slightly firmer and sweeter than I'd ideally like. But it's set while still being spreadable! So I'll take it. (Every previous attempt either never set or set so firm that you couldn't spread it at all.)

Given how firmly it set and how sweet it came out, I think I'd try reducing the sugar slightly next time. I know that it probably won't keep as well that way. But that's fine. We'll just plan to eat it quickly.

Apple Jelly

Slightly adapted from Recipes Made Easy

Ingredients

• apples¹ (preferably Granny Smith or another tart variety), roughly chopped or sliced
• 625mL water per kg of apples
• 150-200g sugar² per cup of apple juice/liquid
• 2 Tbsp. lemon juice per cup of apple juice/liquid

Directions

1. Wheigh your apples, then combine the them with the water and bring to a boil.
2. Boil until apples are very tender (30-45 minutes).
3. Once the apples are very soft, pour the entire contents of the pot into a jelly bag or muslin-lined colander suspeded over a bowl to strain out all of the solids. Do not press! Pressing will make the jelly cloudy. Let it rest and drain for at least four hours.
4. Once the apples have finished draining, measure the liquids collected.
5. Return the liquids to the pot and, for each cup (~250mL) of liquid, add 150-200g of sugar and 2 Tbsp. of lemon juice.
6. Bring to a boil and cook until temperature reaches 105-110°C (220-230°F) or until jelly wrinkles when dropped onto a cold plate and gently poked.
7. Pour into sterilized jars and seal immediately.
8. Set aside to cool, label, and store in a cool, dark place until ready to use. (If you used the lower amount of sugar, store in the fridge, just to be on the safe side.)

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¹ I actually used 1 whole apple and the peels and cores of six additional apples for making my jelly. ^Back
2 The original recipe called for 200g of sugar per cup of liquid, which is what I used this time around. I'd like to try it with 150g next time and see how it goes. This will definitely make it less sweet. Hopefully it will also reduce the firmness of the set a bit without affecting it so much that it doesn't set at all. ^Back

RM put me onto this recipe a while ago. I had hoped to make it with some fresh limes from Reiver's tree while I was in NZ, but I never quite got to it. Luckily we had a bunch of limes in the freezer here though and Granny Smith apples are easy to come by, so I decided to give it a try after I got home instead.

I cut back the sugar significantly in the cake. And I was tempted to skip the icing altogether. But TF was keen on having a bit of frosting, so I did end up using it in the end.

The icing was good. Although I was definitely glad to have cut back the sugar in the cake once the frosting was added. That said, I think that next time I'd be inclined to swap out the American buttercream for a cream cheese icing. I think the cream cheese tang would complement the other flavours nicely. And cream cheese icings tend to need proportionally less sugar and butter to begin with. So, while still not a health food by any stretch, it would still make for a marginally less sweet and calorific topping.

Green Apple and Lime Slice

Adapted from Twisted Citrus

Ingredients

Cake

• 2 Granny Smith apples, grated
• 2 limes, zested and juiced
• 125g butter
• 3 Tbsp. golden syrup
• 240g soft (plain/standard/cake) flour
• 1 Tbsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 c. brown sugar
• 125g unsweetened applesauce
• 2 c. dessicated coconut
• 1 c. sultanas
• 1 c. dried currants
• 2 large eggs

Icing

• 100g butter, softened
• 240g cream cheese, softened
• 1 lime, zested and juiced
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 250-300g icing (powdered/confectioners') sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease and flour a 23x33cm (9x13") baking dish.
2. Mix the lime zest and 2 Tbsp. of the juice with the grated apples.
3. Combine the butter and golden syrup in a small pot and melt over low heat.
4. Sift the flour and baking powder into the bowl with the apples and mix in the salt, cinnamon, sugar, applesauce, coconut, sultanas, and currants.
5. Pour the butter mixture into the bowl and stir to combine.
6. Add the eggs and mix well.
7. Scoop the batter into the prepared pan and smooth into an even layer.
8. Bake at 180&det;C (350°F) until done (~30 minutes).
9. Remove from oven and allow to cool in pan.
10. Meanwhile, make the icing byt beating the butter with the cream cheese until light and fluffy (2-3 minutes).
11. Beat in the lime juice, lime zest, and vanilla.
12. Sift in icing sugar until desired consistency is reached.
13. Once cake has cooled completely, spread the icing on top.
14. Cut into squares and serve.

I probably could've gotten away without making anything for breakfast this morning since we had plenty of bread. But I'd already forgotten that I made it! So I groggily leafed through my cookbooks upon waking and settled on some gingerbread waffles as a relatively quick and easy option. I decided that they needed some sort of sauce to go on them, so TF helped me put together this simple apple sauce.

Personally, I think the cranberry-pineapple sauce actually complements them better, but the chunky apples are good in a pinch. (Cinnamon cream cheese would also be good!)

Chunky Apple Sauce

Slightly adapted from The Big Book of Breakfasts by Maryana Vollstedt

Ingredients

• ~700g apples
• 1/4 c. water
• 2 Tbsp. sugar
• 1/2 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon
• dash (~1/16 tsp.) of ground cloves
• dash (~1/16 tsp.) of ground nutmeg
• a few grinds of salt

Directions

1. Peel, core, and slice apples.
2. Combine apples, water, sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and salt and bring to a boil.
3. Reduce heat to medium and simmer, stirring occasionally, until apples are tender (20-30 minutes).

My square pan is dead! I didn't know it was dead. TF had literally just used it to make brownies. I cleaned the brownie crumbs out of it and put it to use for this crumble. And everything seemed fine until we went to dish it up and found that the fruit had turned strange colours and had a funny aftertaste to them. I think the pan must have reacted with the fruit. Which has me feeling incredibly bummed. I managed to bring fresh feijoas home all the way from NZ and make a crumble immediately while they were still at their peak. To have it ruined by a faulty pan is just heartbreaking! I'm so mad at myself.

I mean, I'm still going to eat the crumble anyway. It's still decent. It's just not nearly as good as it should be. Because my pan failed me!

As far as the recipe itself goes... I found this one very interesting. It is a crumble without oats! The topping is composed almost entirely of ground hazelnuts! With just a bit of flour, honey, and butter to hold it together. It's a tasty combo. And there's enough ginger in it that it actually comes through quite nicely. And I enjoy the sweetened topping with the unsweetened fruit. (Although it would've been even better if the fruit hadn't picked up that slightly nasty pan aftertaste, but... oh well. Not much I can do about that now!)

I'm not sure I'd bother too much with this recipe in the future when the basic crumble is so good. But it was definitely an interesting experiment. And it was fun to try something a bit different.

ETA: So, my feijoa failure is even weirder and more complicated than I'd originally realized. It looks like it's not just that the pan was a little old and scuffed up. It was a reaction between the nuts, the acid in the fruit, and the metal in the pan. If the pan had been in better shape (or I'd used a non-metalic pan), then this wouldn't have happened. Or if I'd made a nut-free crumble, it also would've been just fine. Or even if we'd simply eaten the crumble right away rather than letting it sit all day. But nope! The combination of those three factors caused a chemical reaction -- basically forming iron gall ink in the pan -- and caused my fruit to turn a disturbing purplish-blue and taste funny. Whoops! Oh well... at least it was an interesting failure mode!

Photo goes here.

Feijoa, Apple, and Hazelnut Crumble

Slightly adapted from NZ Woman's Weekly

Ingredients

• 1 c. hazelnuts¹, ground
• 1/2 c. flour
• 1 Tbsp. ground ginger
• 50g butter
• 1/4 c. honey
• 2-3 apples, peeled and sliced
• 400g feijoa pulp, chopped
• ice cream and/or whipped cream, to serve

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease a 23cm (9") square pan. (Preferably a glass or stoneware baking dish and not a metal one.)
2. Combine the hazelnuts, flour, and ginger and mix well.
3. Cut in the butter and mix the honey through.
4. Bring the apples to a gentle simmer with a little water and stew until just softened.
5. Drain the apples and mix them with the feijoa pulp.
6. Pour the fruit mixture into the prepared pan and spread in an even layer.
7. Sprinkle the crumble on top.
8. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 30 minutes.
9. Serve topped with ice cream and/or whipped cream.

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¹ The recipe didn't specify skin-on or skin-off for the hazelnuts. Mine were skin-on and peeling them is always a huge pain, so I just used them that way. This was fine, but I do think they probably would've been slightly better peeled. I recommend using skin-off if you can find them. ^Back

I messed this one up. I should've known better, but I was tired and lazy and foolishly assembled my upside down cake in a springform pan. Which, of course, meant that all of the butter and sugar for the topping ran out the bottom of the pan. Very sad.

I thought that I'd gotten the baking paper high enough up the sides that everything would be contained. Evidently, I was wrong.

The cake was great otherwise! I really liked the bit of almond flour in the batter. It gave it a nice flavour and texture. And it was still tasty even without its caramel topping. I just wish that I hadn't wasted the ingredients. Next time I'll do it in a standard 20cm (8") round pan. (Really, I probably should've just done it in a 20cm square baking dish and called it a day. I might not've been able to unmould it from the square casserole dish, but at least it wouldn't've leaked! Oh well... like I said: next time.)

Photo goes here.

Feijoa and Apple Upside Down Cake

Slightly adapted from NZ Woman's Weekly

Ingredients

• 50g butter, melted
• 1/3 c. brown sugar
• 6-9 large feijoas, halved lengthwise and scooped
• 1 apple, peeled and diced
• 125g butter, softened
• 100g sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 3 large eggs
• 180g soft (plain/standard/cake) flour
• 60g ground almonds (almond flour/meal)
• 2 tsp. baking powder

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease a 20 or 22cm round cake tin, then line the bottom with baking paper.
2. Pour the melted butter into the bottom of the pan and sprinkle with the brown sugar.
3. Arrange the feijoas, cut-side-down, on top.
4. Fill in any gaps with pieces of apple.
5. Cream the softened butter with the sugar until light (~3 minutes).
6. Mix in the vanilla.
7. Beat in the eggs, one at a time.
8. Add the flour, ground almonds, and sift in the baking powder, then stir it all together until just combined.
9. Spoon the batter over the fruit and smooth into an even layer.
10. Bake at 180°C (350°F) until cake tests done (45-55 minutes).
11. Let cool in pan for ~15 minutes before inverting onto plate.
12. Serve with yogurt, whipped cream, and/or ice cream (if desired).

I'm still working my way through all of the feijoa recipes (in an attempt to work through all of the fejoas). Today's recipe was pancakes with a feijoa-based sauce.

Both the pancakes and the sauce were very quick and easy to put together and they made for a nice breakfast. I ended up using old-fashioned rolled oats ("whole grain oats") for my pancakes even though the recipe called for "rolled oats", which I think is the equivalent of what we would call "quick oats" in North America. This worked fine, but I think the quick oats probably would've been better. I debated using instant oats (aka "creamy oats" to you antipodean folks), but the package of "whole grain oats" was already opened and the "creamy oats" were still sealed, so I figured I'd just see how it came out with the more toothsome old-fashioned oats for now.

I cut the sugar in the sauce back to only a 1/4 c., but you may find you need more or less depending on the sweetness of your fruit (and your tooth). The original recipe called for 1/2 c. modulo fruit sweetness.

Photo goes here.

Oat Pancakes with Feijoa-Apple Sauce

Slightly adapted from NZ Woman's Weekly

Ingredients

Pancakes

• 150g soft (plain/standard/cake) flour
• 1/2 Tbsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 2 Tbsp. brown sugar
• 3/4 c. milk
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Sauce

• 1 large apple, peeled and chopped
• 300g feijoa pulp
• 1/4 c. sugar (or to taste)
• 1/4 c. water

Directions

1. Sift together flour, baking powder, and baking soda.
2. Mix in the brown sugar.
3. Beat the egg with the milk and the vanilla.
4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix until just combined.
5. Set aside while you prepare the sauce.
6. Combine apple, feijoa, sugar, and water and bring to a boil over medium heat.
7. Cook until fruit is very tender and easily mashed with a fork (10-15 minutes).
8. While the sauce is cooking, make the pancakes.
9. Heat a pan, tawa, or griddle over medium heat and grease as necessary.
10. Use ~1/4 c. of batter for each pancake and cook until underside is nicely browned and sides are starting to look dry, adjusting heat as necessary during cooking.
11. Flip pancakes and cook until other side is browned and pancakes are cooked through.
12. Repeat process with remaining batter.
13. Serve pancakes topped with the feijoa-apple sauce and plain Greek yogurt.

Not the most appealing name, I know, but this fruit paste was amazing! It looks cool. It was very satisfying to make. It was time-consuming, but not particularly difficult. And it tastes delicious!

I love that it uses the feijoa peels as well as the flesh. I mean, you strain them out after boiling, so they don't get left in the final product. But at least you get to make use of them for their pectin content before you toss them. Very cool.

I also found that I was able to make this with significantly less sugar than the recipe called for. Now, of course, this means that it won't keep nearly as well. But, that's okay! I suspect we'll end up eating it pretty quickly anyway.

Feijoa Paste

Slightly adapted from Twisted Citrus

Ingredients

• 2-3 apples¹
• 500g feijoa pulp + skins
• 400g sugar

Directions

1. Chop the apples. No need to peel or core!
2. Trim the blossom ends off of the feijoas, then halve and scoop them. Measure out 500g of pulp and set it aside. Discard the trimmed ends, but reserve all of the peels.
3. Add the feijoa skins and chopped apples to a pot with just enough water to cover them.
4. Bring to a boil and cook until mushy.
5. Strain and reserve the liquid, pressing down on the solids to extract as much liquid as possible. Discard the solids.
6. Return the liquid to the pot and add the feijoa pulp.
7. Bring to a boil over medium heat and cook until tender.
8. Mash, stir in sugar, and reduce heat to low.
9. Cook, stirring every few minutes, until mixture thickens and darkens significantly (~2 hours).
10. Line a 20x20cm (8x8") square pan with baking paper and pour the paste into the prepared pan.
11. Set aside to cool and set.
12. Once set, cut the paste into squares and serve with cheese.

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¹ The original recipe calls for 3 apples. My apples were quite large, however, so I only ended up using two. ^Back

It's feijoa season!

I'd never even heard of feijoas before coming to New Zealand. But they're apparently a big thing here. They're originally from South America and the fruit are quite prolific. Unfortunately, they don't keep or ship very well at all, but the trees grow quite well here. So, once the season rolls around, you start seeing them everywhere!

I tried a few fresh and they were quite good. But we've now got a glut of fruit. More than I'll be able to eat before they go off. So Reiver suggested an apple-feijoa crumble as a way to use up some of the excess fruit on hand. Especially since we also had some apples that needed to be used up as well.

He couldn't find his usual crumble recipe, so I just used the one from the Countdown website. I scaled back the sugar somewhat and slightly increased the proportion of apples. I think I ended up doing 1 1/2 c. of feijoa pulp and 4 small apples with 3 Tbsp. of sugar in the filling and 2/3 c. in the topping. And, while I'm happy with the results, I think that even more fruit and less sugar would have been better. The write-up below reflects this.

Photo goes here.

Apple-Feijoa Crumble

Adapted from Woolworths/Countdown

Ingredients

Topping

• 1 c. rolled (old-fashioned/whole grain) oats
• 1 c. plain or all-purpose flour
• 1/2 c. unsweetened shredded or flaked coconut (optional)
• 1 Tbsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 Tbsp. ground ginger
• 1/2 c. brown sugar
• 120g salted butter, melted

Filling

• 2 c. feijoa pulp
• 5-6 apples, peeled and sliced
• 2 Tbsp. sugar
• 2 Tbsp. lemon juice

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
2. Combine oats, flour, coconut (if using), cinnamon, and ginger and mix well.
3. Add brown sugar and stir to combine.
4. Pour in butter and mix well. Set aside.
5. Combine the feijoas, apples, sugar, and lemon juice and mix well.
6. Dump the fruit mixture into a 23x33cm (9x13") baking dish and spread into an even layer.
7. Sprinkle the topping over the fruit to cover the entire surface.
8. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for ~25 minutes.
9. Let stand at least 10 minutes before serving.
10. Serve with cream, whipped cream, or ice cream.

This one is really more of a dessert than a breakfast. But it was in the Big Book of Breakfast and I wanted something to go with the zucchini bread (that wasn't eggs). So here we are with some sugary baked apples for breakfast.

Stuffed Baked Apples

Slightly adapted from The Big Book of Breakfast by Maryana Vollstedt

Ingredients

• 4-5 large apples
• 3 Tbsp. brown sugar
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• pinch of ground nutmeg
• pinch of ground cloves
• 3 Tbsp. chopped walnuts
• 2 Tbsp. chopped dried cranberries
• 1 Tbsp. butter
• 1 c. apple juice
• 1 Tbsp. maple syrup
• heavy cream and/or crème fraîche

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F).
2. Scoop the cores out of the apples while leaving the bottoms in tact and peel the top 1/3.
3. Combine the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, walnuts, and cranberries and mix well.
4. Spoon the sugar mixture into the apples and place them in a baking dish.
5. Top each apple with 1/2-3/4 tsp. of the butter.
6. Combine the apple juice and maple syrup and pour it into the baking dish with the apples.
7. Bake at 200°C (400°F) until apples are tender (~30 minutes).
8. Transfer apples to bowls and spoon a bit of the residual syrup from the baking dish over them.
9. Top with cream and/or crème fraîche and serve.

I was initially planning on making a chocolate custard pie with the pastry that I had left over in the fridge. But it requires several hours of chilling to set the custard. And we're a bit low on fridge space at the moment. So I made a last-minute swap and did this apple crumble pie instead.

It was nice. Not, I don't think, a favourite for me, but definitely good nonetheless. Although I think I'd add an extra apple to the filling next time. The recipe called for seven and I think TF and the Kidlet prepped eight. But our apples were quite small, so I think nine or ten would have been more appropriate. I mean, this was still good, don't get me wrong. The filling was adequate. It just wasn't ample. And I would have liked it to have been.

I know apple pie à la mode is a classic regardless. But I think the crumb topping on this one makes it particularly well-suited to being served with ice cream (or whipped cream). It's a really great combo.

Cinnamon Apple Crumb Pie

Slightly adapted from Dessert of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 1/2 recipe sourdough pastry

Topping

• 1/2 c. flour
• 1/3 c. brown sugar
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 5 Tbsp. unsalted butter

Filling

• 8-10 tart apples
• 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 1/3 c. sugar
• 2 Tbsp. cornstarch (cornflour)
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp. coarse sea salt

Directions

1. Make the pastry, wrap, and chill as directed.
2. Combine the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt for the topping and mix well.
3. Cut in the butter. Set aside.
4. Peel, core, and slice the apples and toss with the lemon juice.
5. Combine the sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt and toss with the apples.
6. Roll out the pastry and use it to line a 23cm (9") deep dish pie plate. Trim and crimp edges.
7. Dump the apple mixture into the pastry shell and spread out evenly.
8. Sprinkle with crumb topping.
9. Chill while oven preheats.
10. Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F).
11. Bake pie at 190°C (375°F) for 40-50 minutes.
12. Transfer to wire rack to cool.
13. Serve topped with ice cream and/or whipped cream.

I took the Kidlet to the grocery store with me the other day and she wanted to get an apple pie. I told her that I usually find the budget grocery store apple pies somewhat disappointing and that we'd probably be better off making our own. And, as luck would have it, when TF and I went to the grocery store a few days later, they had bags of apples on the discount produce rack: 8 apples for $2!

Now, the catch with getting discount apples is that you don't get to choose (or even know) what variety you're getting. They looked like maybe macs or galas, but I'm not certain. I know they weren't red delicious, Granny Smith, or golden delicious, but that's about all I can say. I usually hear relatively tart apples (like Granny Smiths) recommended for baking, so this probably wasn't ideal. But they were cheap and I'm still quite happy with how the pie turned out and, most importantly, so is the Kidlet.

The book contains its own pastry recipe for the pie. Initially, I was going to use their recipe. But then I thought about how much sourdough starter I have going begging right now and figured that maybe going for a sourdough pastry would be better. I felt like it would complement the apples reasonably well and let me use up a little starter, so why not? I even managed to get a flakier, less bready result this time! I think the only change I'd make next time is to add slightly more sugar to the crust. Maybe a full tsp. rather than just half. It might also be fun to experiment with brushing the crust with a little egg or milk and then sprinkling on some turbinado sugar before baking. But I didn't want to mess around with that for this time. Possibly something to experiment with, but by no means necessary.

Apple Pie

Slightly adapted from Dish of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 1 recipe sourdough pastry
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 Tbsp. cornstarch
• 8 apples, peeled and sliced
• 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter¹
• vanilla ice cream, to serve (optional)

Directions

1. Prepare pastry, wrap, and chill for at least 30 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
3. Combine sugar, cinnamon, salt, and cornstarch.
4. Add the apples and toss to mix.
5. Divide the pastry into two equal portions and roll out each one into a 30cm (12") round.
6. Use one pastry sheet to line a pie plate.
7. Dump the apples into the pie shell.
8. Dot the butter on top, then cover with remaining pastry sheet.
9. Trim edges and fold the edge of top crust under the bottom crust, then crimp to seal.
10. Cut a few slits in the top crust.
11. Bake until crust is golden and apples are tender (~60 minutes).
12. Transfer to wire rack to cool.
13. Allow to cool for at least 30 minutes before serving.
14. Serve with ice cream and or whipped cream (if desired).

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¹ I only just now realized that I forgot to add the butter. Whoops! ^Back

I've been continuing to work my way through the different suggested mix-ins and combinations of toppings in the pancake section of the Breakfast Bible. I thought that the spiced pancakes would go particularly well with the apples and sugar-and-spice compound butter. And they did! (That butter, by the way, is also excellent on waffles and/or banana-oat pancakes.)

Spiced Pancakes with Apples and Compound Butter

Slightly adapted from The Breakfast Bible by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

Batter

• 1 c. whole wheat flour
• 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
• 1/2 c. quick oats
• 2 Tbsp. brown sugar
• 2 tsp. mixed spice
• 1/8 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1/2 Tbsp. baking powder
• 3/4 tsp. baking soda
• 2 large eggs
• 2 c. buttermilk
• 2 tsp. grated orange zest
• 3 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

Toppings

• sugar-and-spice butter
• apple(s), diced
• pecans, toasted and chopped (optional)
• maple syrup

Directions

1. Combine flours, oats, sugar, mixed spice, and salt.
2. Sift in baking powder and baking soda and mix well.
3. Beat the eggs with the buttermilk and orange zest.
4. Drizzle the butter into the wet ingredients and mix well.
5. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir to combine.
6. Heat a skillet, griddle, or tawa over medium heat. Add a little butter or oil if necessary.
7. Using ~1/4 c. of batter per pancake, portion 3-4 into the pan and cook until underside is browned and bubbles form on surface.
8. Flip and continue cooking until both sides are browned and pacakes are cooked through.
9. Repeat until all batter has been used.
10. Serve pancakes topped with a little of the compound butter, some diced apple, toasted pecans (if using), and a drizzle of maple syrup.