Apple Bread

I still have apples everywhere, waiting for cranberries to be in the stores so I can make batch after batch of cranapplesauce. In the meantime, it's high time to use up some of these apples! I posted on Oct 16 about making apple pie jam. Today I'm going to make some apple bread, a nice quick bread. I've had this recipe for so long that I can't remember where it came from - my original copy is actually a handwritten recipe card. This only uses about 1 large apple per loaf, but it's very good and freezes very nicely. It's also a very simple recipe with very few ingredients, making it an easy quick bread to tackle. While apples are $1/lb in most places, buy some apples and do apple week with me!

1 c. sugar
1/2 c. shortening
2 eggs
1 1/2 T buttermilk (you can use fresh milk or add 1/8 tsp lemon juice or vinegar)
1 tsp vanilla
2 c. flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 c. chopped apples (peel, core, chop, then measure)
1. Grease a bread pan. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Cream the sugar and shortening (mix until creamy, smooth, slightly whipped).
3. Mix in the eggs, milk, and vanilla.
4. Mix in the flour, salt, and baking soda, then stir that into the wet mixture.
5. Stir in the chopped apples.
6. Spread into the prepared bread pan, then bake for one hour or until a toothpick poked into the center of the bread comes out clean.

Pumpkin Oatmeal Muffins

I thought I would experiment with some pumpkin recipes this week, and I started off this morning with pumpkin oatmeal muffins, a new-to-me recipe from Recipezaar, posted by Engineer in the Kitchen that has the added interest of being vegan. This, I believe, is a bit of a case of there can be too much of a good thing. In this instance, it's "low fat" and I'm going to try this recipe again and replace the applesauce with oil. I used muffin papers (come on, it's the week of Halloween, I have a 4-year-old and a 6-year-old, and I have these cute Halloween muffin papers in my cupboard), and the lack of oil/fat in these muffins made them stick so badly to the papers that a good muffin was lost. This could probably be avoided by not using muffin papers and instead greasing muffin cups, but I'm thinking that 1/4 c. of oil for 12 muffins is not going to kill me but might keep the muffins from sticking to the papers! Otherwise, the texture was nice: soft but firm. The flavor was good, pumpkin with a slight earthy flavor from the oats. Chopped nuts, raisins, chopped crystallized ginger, chopped dried pineapple, or other dried berries would all be good additions to these muffins. I might also experiment with substituting wheat flour for some of the all purpose flour. All in all, I'd say that this has the makings of a great breakfast muffin.

1 c. oats (I used old fashioned)
1 1/2 c. all purpose flour
1/2 c. packed brown sugar (I used light brown)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp sea salt (I used kosher)
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 c. rice milk (I used Silk original soy milk)
1 c. canned pumpkin
1/4 c. applesauce (I will use vegetable oil next time

1. Blend the oats in a blender or food processor until they are crumbs (not quite flour).
2. In a large bowl, mix the first nine ingredients (oats through baking soda).
3. In a small bowl, mix the remaining three ingredients.
4. Stir the wet mixture into the dry mix until moistened.
5. Fill muffin tins (6 Texas sized or 12 regular) and bake at 400 degrees F, 25 minutes for Texas and 18 minutes for regular.