Tag: pies

Baking

A was an apple pie…

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photo from the University of Minnesota shows two frames on the left red and yellow honeycrisp apples on the right honeycrisp apples on the tree with green leaves

A Minnesota agricultural development and everyone’s favorite apple, Honeycrisp!

For decades, I only enjoyed this tasty fruit as a hand-to-mouth delight. I never thought to move it into the kitchen for baking. That is, until this year, when Honeycrisp kept showing up as I investigated single layer cake recipes good when eaten fresh but also easily frozen for delayed desserts.

So, after an orchard visit on Wednesday that included the purchase of a peck of apples at the Pepin Heights Store and Richard’s request for a pie, I can attest that Honeycrisps bake up nicely. The fruit’s natural sweetness allows the baker to reduce the amount of refined sugar. The slices cook up to that perfect texture – holding their shape without being too firm and soft without being mushy.  Likewise, the French Apple Cake with apples chopped into 1/4-to-3/8-inch cubes delivered a simple rustic confection, especially when flavored with dark rum.

Yumm!

Photo credit: University of Minnesota College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resources Sciences

Baking

Blueberry Day

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seven blueberry muffins on a blue plate resting on a wood table

While it is officially National Swiss Day (celebratory greetings to all my Swiss cousins!) I have declared this to be Blueberry Day at our house.  I am feeling a time crunch to put our freshly picked produce to good use before leaving for Boston – but more about upcoming travels in tomorrow’s post.  A Double Good Blueberry Pie is chilling in the refrigerator and Blueberry Lemon Muffins are on the menu as tomorrow’s breakfast treat with a few tucked into the freezer for frigid January mornings.

We estimate one more picking will complete this season’s crop.  Our four bushes have produced 16.25 cups thus far; much better than last summer’s yield of only 9.5 cups but not nearly up to the bountiful summers of 2019 and 2020 with 24 and 25 cups, respectively.

The Double Good Blueberry Pie is super easy and, as promised, doubly good with two cups of fresh berries serving as the fruit base in a baked pie shell then topped with two cups of cooked glazed berries.  We will add a dollop of Crème Fraîche to make it extra festive.  

As I misplaced the paper copy of the Blueberry Sour Cream Muffins (shared by Betty D. last summer) and the web address produced an error message, I spent this morning recipe sleuthing (always a fun task.)  The Preppy Kitchen covered my bases – blueberries, lemon and sour cream – although my muffins exclude the streusel topping, all the better to enjoy the berries.

Bon Appétit!

Baking · Gardening

Blueberries – first to last

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When we started harvesting blueberries last month, we doubted we would meet the bountiful 24 cups we picked last summer.  But the wonders of the Great Mother never cease to amaze and we have enjoyed 25 cups from our four small bushes.  So delicious have been the muffins, ice cream glazes, and pies (two lemon sour cream and one traditional) with plenty simply nibbled that none were frozen.  While we may regret our greediness in the depth of winter blues, the fresh berries were just too tempting.  Since today’s last picking only yielded enough (0.5 cup) for tomorrow’s Honey Nut Cheerios breakfast, I am repurposing the photo from our first picking.