Back in the Saddle: Apple Crumble

Despite the balmy weather, we’ve been doing a lot of fall activities lately, including a trip to the pumpkin patch and driving around the neighborhood to see which houses have their Halloween decorations up.  Emmett LOVES the latter, and memorizes which houses have which decorations.  He remembers them all from last year too, so he knows which streets to check for his favorites.  “Scary kitty cat with head that moves” is his #1.  

I left September to making sauce from the last of the good tomatoes but now that it’s October, I think I’m ready for some baking.  Apples. Pumpkin. Warm spices.  All that stuff. What better way to get back in the saddle after a failure then to have a little help? My brother-in-law gave me this fruit crumble mix the other day and it was the perfect re-introduction.  Fail-proof. Fast. And a good excuse to get out the old apple peeler-slicer-corer that the kids love to use so much. The concept is: mix the crumble topping from the box with a splash of milk and cover your fruit filling with it.  Pop it in the oven until it’s all bubbly and golden and eat.  With ice cream, of course.

It turned out to be a good project for baking with little ones. They were able to peel, core and slice the apples (with the help of our little gadget), toss them with a little lemon juice, cinnamon and sugar, and mix the crumble topping with the milk.  As a loss reduction strategy (and to avoid a crazy mess), I was in charge of putting the filling in the baking pan, topping it with the crumble mix and putting the whole thing in the oven. About 50 minutes later the whole thing was bubbly, the topping browned and the house smelled like fall.

Crumble, like pie, really benefits from a chance to rest and cool before digging in - so the juices are absorbed back into the filling instead of seeping out all over the bottom of your pan. For this reason, I try to bake these types of desserts when I’m actually hungry for real food and prepared to wait awhile before sampling. This crumble stayed warm for hours.   We hung out, ate dinner, then played monopoly before tucking into it a few hours later and it was still slightly warm. Perfect with a scoop of cold vanilla ice cream.  

Eve probably enjoyed it the most. She and I shared some for breakfast the next day topped with plain greek yogurt and salted almonds.  Notice I took no photos of the actual eating part. I guess we were all just focused on the food.

Oven ready.  At this point I had probably invested about 15 minutes in the entire dish (including supervision of little helpers). 

Apple Crumble

• 1 box of Green’s crumble mix, available at Paddy’s on the Square in Long Grove
• 20 ml milk (which roughly equals a splash, I was surprised at how little you need, so start small)
• ⅓ cup almonds, roughly chopped (optional)
• 5 medium apples, peeled and sliced, I used a mix of Gala and Golden Delicious
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon or apple pie spice
• Juice of ½ lemon
• 2 tablespoons of sugar
• Pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350F.

1. Mix apple slices with lemon juice, spices, salt and sugar in a large bowl.
2. Mix crumble mix with chopped almonds and milk.  
3. Place apple mixture in a baking dish and top with crumble mixture.
4. Bake for 50 minutes or until apple juices are bubbling and crumble topping is nicely browned.
5. Allow to rest for 2-3 hours.

Serve.

Browned beauty. 

A couple of notes on using the mix.  I didn’t follow the directions on the box which called for a higher cooking temp and shorter cooking time. I did this for a couple of reasons.  First, since I added almonds to the crumble part, I was afraid that they would start to burn at the 400F directed so I lowered it to 350.  Second, I cooked the whole crumble for about 50 minutes which was significantly longer than the 20-25 prescribed on the box.  This was because I used apples, which take longer to cook than some fruits, like berries or peaches. If, for example, I were to use this mix to make cherry crumble with cherry pie filling and no nuts in the topping, I would probably do it exactly as directed.

This crumble mix will go in my pantry from now on. It wasn’t too sweet and came together in seconds with just a splash of milk.  I can already think of a million other ways to use it - on top of coffee cake, banana bread or muffins, in lieu of a top-crust for a pie, on baked oatmeal or even donuts.

And just like that, I’m excited about baking again. What a difference a week makes.

Kitchen Fail! Rainbow Cake

So when you cook a lot, like almost every day, because you have to feed people, then more on weekends and for holidays, parties and friends because you enjoy it, there are definitely highs and lows. Recipes where the payoff is HUGE for a small amount of effort and dinner makes you look like a pro. Times when everything is just so-so and you kinda wish you just ordered Thai food. Then there are abject failures. That’s just life. It happens. It also sucks. Especially when, inevitably, the biggest failure took a lot of time and effort to make. I try to roll with the punches and not get too upset when something goes wrong.  And truly, I’m so busy being a perfectionist in my day job (occupational hazard), I’m far from it at home. Still, failures in the kitchen, like failure everywhere else drives me nuts.

Crafting with modge podge, the last of an old box of rigatoni, stale cereal and sprinkles while I bake.  Later - they ate their art. I wish I was kidding. 

This weekend I planned on making the cutest cake for my brother-in-law’s birthday.  My sweet and stylish brother-in-law who is the best uncle and playmate to the kids, who is always happy to help when called upon for anything from babysitting to reorganizing the garage, carrying anything heavy, giving someone a ride, you name it. Uncle John.  

Ever since Emmett was old enough to be captivated by the thought of a birthday Uncle John has had a birthday cake.  The kids usually decide the theme. This year Emmett wanted to make him an “Irish cake” and Isla wanted something bright and childlike, so we decided on a rainbow.  I was thinking Leprechauns, pot of gold, rainbow - Emmett didn’t get what the rainbow had to do with being Irish but he was still game.  I looked through all of my my baking books and decided on a devil’s food cake and cream cheese frosting from a new book that I had been excited to try out. Truth be told, I was hesitant and thought maybe I should just use my go-to chocolate cake recipe.  I poo-pooed myself for being overly conservative and forged ahead.

Do not try this at home. It is indescribably difficult to apply runny frosting in a rainbow of colors to a small cake. 

I think I sort of sabotaged myself.  In my attempt to be more organized than usual, I measured out all of the ingredients ahead and put them in little bowls, everything that is, except the baking soda. Woops. Yes, I forgot the baking soda. So while the cake tasted good, it was gummy and dense. I was too distracted to notice because once I started the buttercream, I had bigger problems.

The buttercream recipe called for making a vanilla custard with milk and eggs first, then whipping butter and cream cheese together until fluffy and slowly adding the cooled custard. I have no idea what I did wrong but this was a D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R. At first it was sort of grainy and loose, then runny. I tried my best to save it and then decided that the only thing to do was to keep the cake refrigerated (which only exacerbated the texture issue). I really should have thrown the whole thing out and just made regular cream cheese frosting with butter, cream cheese and powdered sugar.  Sometimes I’m too stubborn for my own good.

I ended up completing my unleavened disaster-piece, runny frosting and all just in time for dinner. The only upside was, surprisingly, the the kids still loved it. Isla thought it looked like something out of Trolls, her favorite movie. Emmett and Isla were both beside themselves with excitement, opening the fridge every few minutes to catch a glimpse of it.  And when it was time to eat, Emmett happily scarfed down two pieces.

That night as I lay in bed trying to fall asleep, I wondered to myself what happened to the cake part of the cake? Why was the texture like that? Then, suddenly it dawned on me, the baking soda. Ugh.  I could have strangled myself.  Of course this is not the first time I have forgotten the leavener.  It’s actually one of my most common mistakes in the kitchen, why I’m not much of a baker and prefer cooking - less precision required.  

It took me about a day to get over this birthday fail, which I know sounds silly, especially when there are hurricanes and earthquakes and so many people with real problems in the world. In my defense, I think it was the fact that I wasn’t 100% healthwise,  feeling run down and overwhelmed and letting it get the best of me mentally.

I hate to think how many marshmallows Emmett consumed...I HATE marshmallows but he loves them. 

Sharing it here actually makes me feel better.  Now I see how the whole thing is inconsequential and funny and how the cake is still cute in it’s own silly way. I also think that it’s wonderful, magical even, to see things through the eyes of my children who still believe that cake was beautiful and delicious despite all evidence to the contrary.

No recipes today - for obvious reasons - just a message to everyone who’s had a big fail in the kitchen.  Carry on! You’re doing great! Failures and all.

Purple Plum Torte

Saturday morning breakfast. 

Purple plum torte from the New York Times food section.  This recipe has been on my radar for years, perhaps decades.  It is, apparently, the most popular recipe to ever be printed (and reprinted and reprinted and reprinted) in the New York Times.  And, like many other things that I should have started making YEARS ago, I finally see what all the hype is about.  

My enthusiastic helper.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thought to make this cake, torte, whatever you want to call it.  It’s made an appearance on just about all of my favorite food blogs and websites over the years and of course, in the Times. Recently, I bought The Essential New York Times Cookbook by Amanda Hesser and there it was again. The recipe calls for Italian Prune Plums - which I rarely see - but since we are smack dab in the middle of plum season, I thought I might finally make the cake with whatever plums I could find.

Then, last Friday, I walked into the farmstand by my office, and the first thing I saw was a sign for Italian Prune Plums. On sale! It was destiny.

Ready to go into the oven.

I made the recipe in two 6-inch cake pans.  I love my 6-inch cake pans because, with the exception of this little number, we can never finish a full-sized cake.  Also because we probably shouldn’t. Most recipes that call for an 8 or 9 inch cake pan can be cut in half to make a 6 inch cake.  Or you can easily make two 6-inch cakes and save one for later (cakes freeze well), give one away, or let your husband dig into one while the other stays pristine for the dinner party you planned on serving it at. I cannot tell you the number of times Paul has tried to convince me that it’s ok to serve a dessert with a slice missing. NOOOOOO.

In this case, I didn’t end up needing my 6 inch cake pans because, somehow, we polished both of these plum cakes off in a weekend. What can I say? It’s a versatile little torte. Reminiscent of a coffee cake, and similarly good for breakfast or an afternoon snack, but also good with ice cream, creme fraiche, or whipped cream as a full blown dessert. It’s also really, really, easy to make. So I see its popularity, the payoff is really quite big for the effort involved.

I read somewhere that it is best to let it rest for several hours or overnight to let the plum juices release into the cake before digging in. This sounded reasonable to me, so I made it on Friday night and we enjoyed it for breakfast on Saturday.  It was jammy and delicious.  I finally understood what the big deal was. I know I’ll be making it again soon and I’m sure it will be delicious even if I can’t get Italian Prune Plums again until next year.

So it's not the most beautiful thing you've ever seen, but wait until you taste it. 

Purple Plum Torte

The Essential New York Times Cookbook by Amanda Hesser

Ingredients

• ¾ to 1 cup sugar
• ½ cup (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup unbleached flour, sifted
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 2 eggs
• 24 halves pitted purple plums
• 1-2 tablespoons sugar
• Juice from ½ a lemon
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon cardamom

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Cream the sugar and butter in a bowl. Add the flour, baking powder, salt and eggs and beat well.

3. Spoon the batter into a springform pan of 8, 9 or 10 inches (or two 6 inch pans). Place the plum halves skin side up on top of the batter. Sprinkle lightly with sugar and lemon juice, depending on the sweetness of the fruit. Sprinkle with about 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, depending on how much you like cinnamon. I added cardamom as well because I’m a cardamom junkie, especially with stone fruits.

4. Bake 1 hour, approximately. Remove and cool; refrigerate or freeze if desired. Or cool to lukewarm and serve plain or with whipped cream. (To serve a torte that was frozen, defrost and reheat it briefly at 300 degrees.)

The aftermath. Worth it.