22 pounds of apples

plus: 35 days until smitten kitchen keepers!

Oct 11, 2022

Tuesday, October 10, 2022

Good morning!

Every. Day.
The dream of an easy weeknight dinner (New Yorker)
I confess I got rid of mine too… (Eater)

We drove two hours to buy expensive apples this weekend. We do it every year and I will continue to even when they tell me they’re too old and bored for apple picking and we will always come home with too much because plucking apples from trees is fun and we are not actually sad that I’ll now have to make the Butterscotch Apple Crisp from Smitten Kitchen Keepers, which will be out in a mere 35 days, a few extra times this fall. [You are going to melt when you smell it in your kitchen. It’s honestly not fair to the other dishes that it gets to taste this good.] It will, however, only make a dent in what we picked so if you’re in the same boat — no self-control in an apple orchard — this newsletter is for you. The recipes below are sorted by the pounds of apples they use. Oh and while you’re at it, go treat yourself to some Royal Cinnamon, which is perfect in every way (this is not sponsored, I buy it for myself); your fall baking will thank you.

Cheers,

Deb

The Smitten Kitchen Keepers book tour kicks off in NYC the day it comes out, November 15th, and continues to Toronto, Minneapolis, Boston, Denver, and more! Find all of the dates and details on the Events page.

Is the book tour not coming to your town? I’d still love to get you a signed cookbook! You can order signed and personalized copies of Smitten Kitchen Keepers — or my previous cookbooks — through The Strand Bookstore. Orders are due 11/2.

focaccia onion board

New: An Eastern European savory flatbread smothered in onions and poppy seeds with the classic chew and crisp of focaccia, is a cinch to make and heavenly in a big brunch-y spread with cream cheese, lox and all the good stuff, or alongside soup all season. Your kitchen is going to smell otherworldly.

How to use your first 22 pounds of apples

even more perfect apple pie

Did you also, in a whirl of leafy October bliss, pick too many apples and now aren't sure what to do with them? Here's a recommendation for the first 4.5 pounds of them: A few adjustments to my usual apple pie yielded one more perfect than I knew was possible, with a tall heap of cinnamon-and-spice apples nestled in a caramel-like sauce within a flaky, buttery crust.

apple sharlotka

Got apples? Sugar? Flour? Eggs? You should make sharlotka tonight. It has no butter or oil. It's mostly apples. Your Tuesday evening will be better with this in it.

perfect apple tarte tatin

A good tarte tatin looks like snug apple cobblestones on top of a rippling puff of flaky pastry. If you’re lucky, the apples will taste like they drank a cup of caramel and then napped in what they couldn’t finish.

dutch apple pie

A springform-deep cake of an apple pie that's fragrant, buttery, and rustic. The only proper way to eat it, like so many things worth eating, is with whipped cream, really an inordinate amount too.

mom’s apple cake

My mom's apple cake is an avalanche of apples, a tiny bit of batter, and a cascade of cinnamon baked into a hulking mass of fall awesomeness in a tube pan that people will demand you make again and again. It's for new neighbors, and rainy afternoons. It's also dairy-free and gets better the longer it lasts.

apple strudel

A delicate flaky shell of buttery pastry wrapped around vanilla, cinnamon, lemon and rum-kissed apples and raisins. I was so intimidated to make Apfelstrudel from scratch, I called my mother in for support. It turned out to be surprisingly simple — this straightforward recipe is nearly impossible to mess up.

apple mosaic tart with salted caramel

Did someone order a showstoppper? This tart is as simple as puffed pastry, apples, butter and sugar. It tastes, however, like the highest calling of all four due to an (easy, I promise) copper-colored salted caramel topping that bakes back onto the tart, glossing everything.

apple pancakes

Closer to apple latkes than traditional breakfast pancakes, these fritters make you glad you picked too many apples again this year. It makes a lot, so halve the recipe or thank yourself tomorrow when you have a cozy breakfast all ready to rewarm.

shop my favorites

Ever wonder where I get my cutting boards, paring knives, offset spatulas and more than you see when I cook? I've created a page on Smitten Kitchen with links to some of my favorite kitchen items, the ones I'm asked about the most. For each item, I've attempted to provide a range of shopping links so we're not just focusing on one giant retailer. Recent additions: The glass pot you might have seen in some recipe demos, and my go-to nonstick crepe pan. Let me know if there’s anything I’ve left off that you need!

4 years ago: crispy spinach pizza

5 years ago: quick pasta and chickpeas

See you next week!