apples apples apples
plus: three cozy dinners
Tuesday, October 10, 2023
Good afternoon!
Totally normal comments for online recipes [New Yorker] [I would like to be clear that I love all of your comments, but no fewer than three people sent this to me, so I had to share.]
Fascinating Part 1 and Part 2 about the psychology of grocery shopping [TikTok]
It’s a 9 out of 10 day in NYC and despite having done this every single year of the last 14 that I’ve been a parent, I’ve learned not a single lesson and did it again this past weekend: We picked 39 pounds of apples on Sunday, and wow, do I have some baking to do. Thus, this newsletter is for me, me, me, and anyone else who lacks self-control at apple orchards. Below, eight of the very best things I know how to make with apples and because we cannot live on apples alone, try as I will have to this week, three cozy and wonderful things to make for dinner when you come home and want to warm up.
Plus: A new Thanksgiving partnership with Williams-Sonoma (including a favorite cooler-weather mocktail and a rapid-fire Q&A) and stay tuned, as a small Thanksgiving tour will be announced shortly. 🍂
Cheers,
Deb
I’ve written three cookbooks and I’m a tiny bit biased, but I think you’d love them all. I’m excited that this weather means you might be able to cook some of my early fall favorites from my most recent cookbook, Smitten Kitchen Keepers, such as the endive salad with apple matchsticks, double shallot egg salad, winter squash soup with red onion crisp, creamy tomato and chickpea masala, charred brussels sprout toast with ricotta, portobello hoagie, and the turkey meatloaf for skeptics with crushed ranch-y potatoes, and please don’t forget the carrot cake with brown butter and no clutter, butterscotch apple crisp, and apple cider old-fashioned. Were you looking for a list of all the recipes in each of my cookbooks? I’ve added these in a separate page and hope it makes it easier for you to find everything you want to cook.
APPLES 🍎
apple mosaic tart with salted caramel
Did someone order a showstopper? 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.
dutch apple pie
Sunday baking project? 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.
apple strudel
A delicate flaky shell of buttery pastry wrapped around vanilla, cinnamon, lemon and rum-kissed apples and raisins, with or without a dollop of whipped cream or vanilla ice cream trickling down the sides. 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.
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, High Holidays, and rainy afternoons. It's also dairy-free and gets better the longer it lasts.
apple dumplings
Fixation-worthy apple dumplings. When you cut into each packet, flakes of buttery crust strew everywhere, a trickle of brown sugar caramel floods your plate and mingles with the whiskey-infused glaze that had melted over the sides. Please make these soon; you'll be so glad you did.
breakfast apple granola crisp
Psst, If you make this, you can whittle away at your apple-picking supply, have the first serving with a scoop of ice cream for an above-average dessert, *and* have enough left for a week of dreamy October breakfasts.
apple and cheddar scones
Gently roasted apples and a small heap of cheddar bake into a craggy, toasted-edge, soft-centered scone that tastes like a wedge of September bliss.
apple cider sangria
A deeply fall take on sangria is the ideal seasonal drink for this week -- not too boozy but just warming enough, I basically created this just for meee.
DINNER TONIGHT
chicken, leek, and rice soup
An easy, rustic chicken soup with nods to warmer days. This recipe has built-in flexibility so you can use what you have on hand, but a few of my favorite things (leeks, lemon, herbs, some heat, and even the most barebones of stocks) make it truly excel. I hope it hits the spot.
roasted cabbage with walnuts and parmesan
I love this cabbage dish -- wait, come back! It's so much more than it sounds: A warm salad for cold weather. Starter Cabbage for people who are cabbage suspect. Better from the tray than a serving dish, rewarding laziness, you're welcome. It takes 20 minutes total, including prep. Don't sleep on those lacy, crunchy edge pieces -- they tend to "disappear" before we even get it to the table.
baked potatoes with wild mushroom ragu
A heartier, vegetable-centric, and slightly fancied-up baked potato that doesn't forget the essentials (butter, cheese) -- phew.
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. I recently added several new favorites I’ve bought in the last year. For each item, I've attempted to provide a range of shopping links so we're not just focusing on one giant retailer.
See you next week!
