Apple-Cinnamon Dutch Babies for Two
I woke up early one morning last week to a glorious sunrise. I took a short walk up the hill, made my coffee and decided it was the perfect day to make the apple Dutch babies that have been floating around in my head. Dutch babies, also known as Dutch or German pancakes, are baked in the oven instead of cooked on a griddle like the typical American-style buttermilk pancake. This was my first fall-themed Dutch pancake of the season, an apple-cinnamon version, with maple-whipped cream on top.
Delicious Pumpkin Bread Recipes
Have you ever stopped to think about why banana bread is one of the items that people overwhelmingly chose to bake during the pandemic? Why not pumpkin or some other quick bread? I’d wager to say that banana bread is seasonally agnostic and popular throughout the year. Plus, it makes us feel like we are doing our part when we use up the overripe bananas on the counter. A beautiful thing about quick breads is that they are very approachable. No yeast or proofing times are involved. Typically, these easy breads require one bowl, one stirring utensil and a loaf pan. There must be thousands of banana bread recipes on the internet. A quick Instagram look this morning tells me that #bananabread has over two million posts (2,058,899), while #pumpkinbread has a mere 183,104 posts. Pumpkin, somewhat surprisingly, beat out zucchini bread (85,923 posts). While I’ve tried several banana bread riffs, it’s hard to believe that I’ve made the same pumpkin bread recipe for the past 20 years. So today I’m stepping out. I made a new recipe for pumpkin bread that includes a dusting of cinnamon and sugar before going into the oven. And she’s gourd-geous.
Baked Donuts: Apple Cider and Pear Crumble
By all means doughnuts should be enjoyed year-round, but I’d argue that National Doughnut Day should be celebrated in October (not June; who came up with that?). After all, donuts are synonymous with fall, pumpkin patches and apple cider. When my son was in high school, he worked at Fall City Farms where their biggest claim to fame was not the pumpkins, but the mini donut machine. (Okay the pumpkin canon had its fans as well.) On October weekends there’d typically be a line waiting to buy bags (that no one wanted to share) of warm melt-in-your-mouth mini donuts rolled in cinnamon and sugar. It was a once-a-year indulgence that I need to revisit. The best tasting donuts are the ones that smell of yeast frying in the air. That’s hard to argue. But there’s also a certain charm in baking donuts at home this time of year. Especially if you’re like me and are afraid to deep fry anything. I came across a Nordic Ware donut pan and in the spirit of fall, I set out to bake a couple varieties of donuts using a mixture of warm spices, apples, pears, a maple glaze and a buttery streusel topping.
Fall baking: Cue the apples and pumpkin
I have slowly and a bit reluctantly let go of summer, inched into the fall season, and started dreaming of fall baking complete with warm spices, apples, pumpkin, pears and maple-flavored everything. I mean, isn’t that what fall is all about? (Okay, maybe some football too.) In my divine order of fall baking, apples come first. After all, apples are equated with teachers and back to school. I also happen to live in the beautiful state of Washington, where apples are aplenty; the state produces over half the Nation's domestically grown apples. Or maybe apples reign first for me because I refuse to give into the societal pressure related to pumpkin spice lattes re-joining the Starbucks menu in late August. Hold on pumpkin, wait your turn. My first little fall baking task was the Zoë François Apple Almond Galette. However, I’m proud to say that I waited until the calendar officially declared it was fall and then the very next day, I baked a pumpkin chocolate snack cake.