apples Archives - Splash of Sherri

Baked Apple Doughnuts with Spicy Cinnamon Sugar

Posted on September 26, 2017 by Sherri

Baked apple doughnuts with cinnamon sugar is an oldie but a goodie so I’m replaying it! This recipe was originally published in October of 2015. I made them the other day and thought it’s a perfect recipe to replay for apple season and the holidays. Enjoy the rewind!

You guessed it… Another apple recipe! That basket on my kitchen counter is getting smaller by the day! This time it’s baked apple doughnuts with cinnamon sugar. Why baked doughnuts you ask? Because they are delicious – that’s why! When my family was at Lynd Fruit Farm a couple of weeks ago, their snack stand was open where they sell a variety of goodies. They make fresh kettle corn, roasted candied nuts, hot cider, funnel cakes, fresh doughnuts and apple fritters among other things. Usually we will buy one doughnut and one apple fritter and split it among the family, then go back for 2 more!

On this visit, it was Pumpkinpalooza day at the farm and to say it was extremely busy is an understatement! I guess the word palooza should give you an idea to the fun activities they had going on! In the urban dictionary palooza is defined as an all-out crazy party; partying at one place with a ton of people like there’s no tomorrow! It wasn’t quite that crazy, but the line was pretty long and we were tired from the couple of hours we just spent apple picking and shopping in the farm stand, so we went home. However, the sweet smell of the candied nuts, doughnuts and cider never left me and have been on my mind for the past couple of weeks.

I love doughnuts, but I don’t like eating fried foods. I save that for times I want a really special treat. My search for a healthier doughnut lead me to this baked doughnut. I found it on the King Arthur Flour website and promise you won’t miss the extra calories frying would add! It tastes like an old-fashioned cake doughnut, which was my father’s favorite! This recipe uses 100% whole wheat flour, and apple sauce which makes a very tender and delicious cake style doughnut. I changed it up quite a bit due to the ingredients I had on hand (or didn’t have on hand in this case), and added more spices to it. Their recipe calls for orange juice and apple cider reduction which I didn’t have and they gave substitutions for. I always have small cans of pineapple juice in the house and it’s a wonderful sub for orange juice. I’m anxious to try the cider reduction one day, I think it will add great flavor to this already yummy treat!

I did try the maple glaze and while it was very good, it was too sweet for me. Instead, I went with a dusting of cinnamon sugar and my family agreed it was a winner. It is very close to the cinnamon sugar doughnuts they had at the farm-stand. This is an adapted version of the King Arthur Flour recipe. They came out fantastic, are quick to put together, and are a healthier doughnut, using white whole wheat pastry flour, very little oil and baking instead of frying. The only problem… they don’t last long – I can promise you that! Enjoy!

2 cups King Arthur white whole wheat flour*
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon apple pie spice
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1 1/8 cups plus applesauce
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
2 tablespoons pineapple juice (or orange juice)
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
cinnamon sugar (1/2 cup sugar plus 2 teaspoons cinnamon**)

Glaze recipe (if you’re a glaze lover!)
1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
3 tablespoons pure maple syrup***
3/4 teaspoon maple extract
pinch of salt
2 teaspoons milk or heavy cream (enough to make a spreadable glaze)
Mix all the glaze ingredients together until smooth

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease or spray two standard doughnut pans.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, apple pie spice, and ginger then set aside. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, oil, applesauce, pineapple juice, and vanilla. Stir the wet mixture into the dry ingredients just until combined.

Spoon the batter in the doughnut pans, filling each one a little more than three quarters full. Some people use a pastry bag for this step. I was fine spooning the batter in the wells of the doughnut pan. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Allow to cool for 5 minutes in the pan, then take them out. Combine the sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. While still warm, dip each doughnut into the cinnamon sugar to coat on both sides. Set on a wire rack to cool. If you’re glazing, allow the doughnuts to cool completely before spreading on the glaze.

This recipe yields 12 to 18 regular size doughnuts or 48 mini doughnuts

*White whole wheat flour is lighter in color and milder in flavor than 100% whole wheat flour with all of the same benefits. If you want to substitute all-purpose flour use 1 3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons.

**I use Vietnamese Cinnamon in all my baking. It’s strong, rich and has a sweet flavor I really like. It can be found in most groceries or specialty spice shops.

jarred’s holiday layered applecake

Posted on October 1, 2016 by Sherri

I find the need to repost this recipe every year as is it is a timeless classic. It’s similar to so many out there who claim theirs is the best (but of course, mine is!). What makes mine so different you ask? I don’t add orange juice like most apple cake recipes, instead I prefer using pineapple juice, It gives it a bit of a tropical twist. I also add a dash of almond extract – you know me and my almond obsession! Just these two little changes really set apart from the rest of the pack.

Since I always find myself with a plethora of apples in the fall, this is the perfect cake to make. If you’ve been following my blog, you know I go apple picking every year. I find myself adding apples to almost everything that I bake. There are apple pancakes, my mother’s applesauce, apple pies, crumbles and crisps, and my baked apple doughnuts, among the top contenders. However, if you’re looking for something very special and easy – it’s this apple cake.

“Jarred’s Holiday Apple Cake” has been in my recipe binder for the past 24 years. I know the exact amount of time because it was 24 years ago when I sent out holiday cards to family and friends with a personalized recipe inside the card. It’s not an old family recipe that was handed down to me, it was personalized and printed by the card company and titled “Jarred’s Holiday “Layered Apple Cake” after my then one year old son. Oddly, in all of those 24 years, I never made the cake!

I figured it was something made up for show by the card company. Several years ago, my sister-in-law Barbara was telling me about the delicious apple cake she made and how easy it was. I asked her for the recipe and she laughed outloud and said, it’s Jarred’s apple cake. I was very confused. Had my son become a baker and I didn’t know it?

Apparently, she had been using the recipe from the card for years and loved it! I guess it really worked after all and she was right; it’s terrific and super easy! It also freezes great if you want to make it ahead of time. I don’t think it would make it to the freezer in my house, but it’s good to know! It’s so good I make it year round but to make it extra special around the holidays I decorate the top with thinly sliced apples. You could also cut wedges and place them on top in a circle around the cake. So here it is, straight from the card (with my splash of course) which reads… Best wishes for a New Year filled with all of the ingredients for good health, happiness, and peace. Enjoy!

SONY DSC — For the smaller versions, I used 6 one pound aluminum loaf pans. These are nice to give as gifts, or to freeze for a later date.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup vegetable oil (I use sunflower oil)
4 eggs
1/4 cup pineapple juice (orange would be fine too)
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract (optional but highly recommended)

Now for the apples:
4 to 6 apples* peeled and sliced (yield about 6 to 7 cups)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
5 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Generously grease a 10″ tube pan** and set aside. I sprayed the pan generously with canola oil but you can use butter if you are not keeping it dairy free.

In a small dish, mix 5 teaspoons of sugar with the 2 teaspoons of cinnamon together and set aside. This will be used in the layers over the apples.

Peel and slice the apples, mix with lemon juice to keep the apples white and set aside. I use an apple slicer that cores, peels and spirals the apple into rings then chop it from there. I reserved one apple to decorate the top.

Beat together until smooth the sugar, oil, eggs, orange juice and vanilla. In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, salt and baking powder. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix together just until incorporated.

In the tube pan, pour a layer of batter, then place a layer of apples, and sprinkle about 2 tablespoons of the cinnamon sugar mixture. Repeat layering pattern until all of the batter and apples are used. I ended up with 2 layers of apples and 3 layers of batter. Try to keep the apples in the center of the pan, so they don’t stick to the sides. The original recipe says to top with sugar and cinnamon mixture which is what I did for my smaller cakes. The big cake I topped it with rings of apples and sprinkled it with about 1 to 2 tablespoons of plain white sugar. You can do it either way – both delicious and pretty.

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 1/4 hours to 1 1/2 hours or until a cake tester comes out clean. I like to check it every 30 minutes and turn it 1/2 way through the baking time.

*I used a combination of granny smith, jonathan and golden delicious because that is what I had on hand. Any good baking apple of your choice will work very well in this recipe.

**This recipe will also make 6 miniature loaf pans (1 pound size) or 3 regular size loaf pans (2 pound size). I only made one layer of apples in these versions and they bake in about 40 to 55 minutes.

One Kitchen Tool I can’t Live Without…

Posted on October 24, 2014 by Sherri

An Apple Peeler!

In a previous post, I mentioned how my son got us hooked on apple picking when he was in kindergarten. I wasn’t kidding when I told you he must have eaten 3 or 4 apples a day. I remember the proud expression on his face as he ate one of the apples he picked. I remember the enthusiasm in which he asked for apple after apple very clearly all these years later. I also remember how my hands hurt every night after peeling all of those apples.

Enter my new best friend in the kitchen… The APPLE PEELER

I was shopping with a friend and telling her the apple story and how much my hands were starting to hurt. I said it laughingly, but it was true. While we were waiting in line, I happened to see the very apple peeler in the photo above. It was quite a coincidence. I didn’t think it would work very well and I figured it would be one of those things I’d end up returning. However, if what the package said was true, I’d be eating a spiraled apple in no time. In addition, it looked like a cool gadget and just like Meghan Trainor’s hit song… All About the Bass, I’m all about the cool kitchen gadget!

When I got home, I couldn’t wait to open the box and slice an apple. I placed the apple on the prongs, turned the handle a few times and voila, I had an apple sliced into rings like an accordion! It not only sliced the apple in even slices, it took the peel off* and cored it. It worked like a charm and was really very cool. I couldn’t wait for my son to get home from school, and see the magic!

The bus pulled up, my son ran into the house, washed his hands, and asked for a snack. I sliced up an apple, put it on a plate and when he saw it, he couldn’t believe his eyes. The expression on his face was priceless. As he picked up the rings, he used two of them as eyeglasses to look through and called me the apples of his eyes!

That year I bought about 6 of them and gave them out as gifts as holiday presents, anniversary presents, as hostess gifts, if there was an occasion, you were getting an apple peeler. I think I even gave my son’s teacher one. An apple peeler for everyone! I purchased them at Bed, Bath & Beyond, but have also seen them in groceries, and sometimes TJ Maxx and HomeGoods. It’s really a handy kitchen gadget. It makes life easier when making applesauce, or you can bake the rings and make apple chips. I have even been known to use the slices to decorate an apple cake. If you decide to buy one, let me know how you like it. Enjoy!

*On a side note, you can leave the peel on the apple if you’d like, there is an option to do that.

Honeycrisp Apples… What’s all the Hype?

Posted on September 18, 2014 by Sherri

If you live in the Midwest, you know that last week was the beginning of honeycrisp apple season. If you live anywhere else in the country, allow me to share a glimpse of what that means…

Local farms will advertise the day “u-pick” is available for whatever produce they have available. The farms post on their websites which variety of fruit or vegetables will be available, or you can sign up for email alerts. What is u-pick, my New York friends are asking? Well, it’s exactly that. You go to a farm and pick your own apples, blueberries, pumpkins – whatever is in season. It is so much fun my friends and family look forward to it all year. I was first introduced to apple picking soon after we moved to Ohio. My son’s kindergarten class went to a local orchard and for weeks following he ate apples with breakfast, lunch, and dinner! The next year we went as a family and have been doing so ever since. Lynd’s Farm has a corn maze, farm stand with fresh baked goods, and the best fruits and vegetables you can find. I think Autumn is the best time to go. That’s when they have hot apple cider and warm doughnuts.

Watch out! — Watch out Lauren, Judy’s on a mission – leave no apple behind!

Honeycrisp time is something completely different. We go to Lynd’s Fruit Farm every year. The picking is always on a Friday and the apples go fast. Some years they have been sold out by noon. My girlfriends and I have made honeycrisp picking a tradition for the past 3 or 4 years now. We get the kids off to school, designate a driver and off we go! The plan is to get to the farm before they open, wait on the car line that extends for miles, talk about which side of the orchard we should go to and how crazy we are for waiting to do this! Then for the next hour or so taste and pick the most deliciously juicy apples you can imagine and realize it was all worth it. With the first bite, you know why they are called honeycrisp. They are sweet with a hint of honey flavor, very crisp and juicy. What we always find amazing is that every tree yields a slightly different tasting apple. This year after each of us picking our 20+ pounds of apples, we dragged our bags to the car only to find the best tree when it was too late! Every year, we also learn something new from fellow apple pickers. One year we were impressed with the family who came with the wagon so you didn’t have to schlepp your apples around. The next year it was the woman with the step stool so she could reach the higher parts of the trees – genius! One of the best tips we got was from the women who had laundry baskets in their car. After picking, they put the plastic bags filled with apples in the basket so they won’t roll around in the car on the way home.

JUDY RETOUCHED smaller — My friend Judy is the apple in the middle!

I’d like to tell you that there will be great recipes on my blog featuring them, but I’m not sure there will be! For one thing, I think they are too delicious eaten as is to do anything else with them. But who knows, I may change my mind. We met a woman who came with a wagon and picked about 60 pounds of apples! She was planning on making a lot of pies. I should have gotten a little friendlier with her!