Apple Clafouti

Hey guys, it’s me again! Ready to cook? This one will take a little more effort but will be worth it. I actually got this recipe out of this great book called ‘Vegan on the Cheap,” so it’s healthy and cheap, add in the fact that it tastes good and what more could you ask for?

This was inspired by a French country dessert and is sort a cake and a pie all rolled into one. Again I am using apples since I need to use the ones I have but feel free to substitute a different fruit if you wish. The classic French dessert uses black cherries.

Here’s what you need:

3 large Apples (or your desired fruit)

1 tablespoon vegan butter

½ cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar

1 ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 cup applesauce

¾ cup plain non-dairy milk

2 tablespoons pure maple syrup

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar

Here’s what you do:

Preheat the oven to 375F. Grease a 10-inch pan and set aside. Peel and core the apples and cut them into ½ slices.

In a large skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the apples, 1 tablespoon of sugar and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and cook, stirring until the apples are softened, 3-4 minutes.

Spread the slices evenly in the bottom of the prepared dish and set aside.

In a large bowl beat together the applesauce, soy milk, remaining ½ cup sugar, maple syrup, vanilla, remaining cinnamon, and salt until smooth.

Beat in the flour and baking powder until just combined and smooth. Do not over mix.

Pour the batter over the apples

Bake until set, about 35 minutes. (I ended up cooking it for about 38 minutes.) Let cool for 30 minutes. Just before serving, sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar. Serve warm. And Enjoy!

See, that wasn’t too bad, was it?

Talk to you soon and happy cooking!

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Apple Cranberry Chutney

Welcome back to my food blog! So I hope you guys like apples, because we are going to go a little apple crazy this week as I try to use up as many apples as possible before they start to fall off my tree and go bad.

We are going to start off easy with an Apple Cranberry Chutney. This doesn’t take many ingredients or much effort. I like the versatility of this dish, you can make it at Thanksgiving for a little twist on traditional cranberry sauce, you can eat it on its own as a fall snack or my personal favorite you can pair it with some vanilla ice cream for a great dessert.

Here’s what you need:

-3oz bag of dried cranberries (if you make this around Thanksgiving when you can find fresh cranberries easily you can use 1-12oz bag of fresh cranberries)

-4 sweet apples, any kind you want, peeled and diced

-1/2 cup granulated sugar

-1/2 cup apple juice

-½ teaspoon cinnamon

-¼ teaspoon ground ginger

-a pinch of all spice or nutmeg

Optional stuff

-you can also add raisins if you want

-I soaked my dried cranberries in sherry for about 20 min before I started and poured the sherry into the pot 🙂

Now for the cooking. Throw everything (except the raisins if you are using them) in a large saucepan.

Stir together and bring to a simmer. Once the mixture is simmering, reduce to medium low, cover, and let continue to simmer for 20-25 min.

Add raisins, if using, let it cool uncovered and serve at room temperature (unless putting it over ice cream then serve warm).

See I told you that would be easy!

Talk to you soon and happy cooking!

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Here’s my story

Let’s start this by saying that 6 years ago my culinary repertoire consisted of boiling Top Ramon and microwaving Spaghettio’s.  I had no idea that I would come to love to be in a kitchen and to cook and bake. Now the kitchen is a haven for me; I can have a bad, stressful day and all of that is washed away when I start to cook.

                How I came to love cooking is a bit of an interesting story; it has its funny parts and its incredibly sad parts. My first year of college I had no idea what I wanted to do so I just took basic classes that would apply to any degree, then my father came to me and asked if I wanted to take a basic culinary class with him and my mother. I think for most 18 year olds the idea of going to college with their parents is the most embarrassing idea in the world, but I was not your average 18 year old. I decided that it would be a fun idea, so I went for it.

                The first night of class was entertaining when we got to the roll call; the looks we got when it came out that I was going to class was my parents were ones of shock. There were ups and downs of taking a class with my parents but in the end I fell in love with being in the kitchen….and so did my dad. Here starts the real journey of going to culinary school with my father; some days we were laughing non-stop and some days I wanted to pull my hair out, or his. I got to know my father better than I could have ever imagined and we decided that our end goal was to open a bakery and café together in the future.

                Then tragedy struck, my father was diagnosed with cancer one year before we would graduate together, and two months later he was dead. My world was rocked, and trying to walk back into that kitchen every day was the hardest thing I have had to do in my life. There were days I didn’t know if I would graduate, but I pulled through and the kitchen became my haven.

                Now I not only love to cook but have turned my eating habits 180 degrees around. I love to eat local and grow what I can and have even become a vegetarian, so for this blog I will be sharing some of my favorite healthy recipes and some cooking experiments that hopefully work out haha. I hope you’ll join me on this journey.    

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