Weekly Recipe - My Illustrated Apple Pecan Cobbler Recipe (and How To Make Unsweetened Applesauce)

Last week, my husband was gifted with TONS of apples. I am not complete clear on the story but one of his clients left three boxes of BC (British Columbia) apples for him and his employees. My hubby manages a ski resort, so I am not really sure of the connection, but, boy were we excited when he brought them home! There are standard Red Delicious, MacIntosh, and I think, Jonagold. The latter are absolutely delicious for eating and are almost gone. The Red Delicious, which was the top variety of apple in the world for decades, but not a favorite of mine, are good for both eating and cooking. MacIntosh, which have been popular since the early 1800s, are great for my toddler when skinned because they are soft, but since I like crisp apples, I prefer to make them into applesauce. Applesauce just might be the easiest thing on the planet to make...

How to Make Applesauce
By Tiffany Teske
The following works for any amount of apples. I often made small batches with one or two apples for my babies but you can also do this with a dozen apples. Just select your saucepan according to the amount of chopped apples you will have.

Ingredients
~ Apples
~ Water

Directions
1. Peel the apples.
2. Chop the apples.
3. Put the apples into a saucepan. Add water until it just covers the apples, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until soft (up to 20 minutes).
4. Puree in the blender or with a handmixer or smoothie mixer or food mill. You can also mix or whisk it by hand.
I don't sweeten my applesauce, since I find it unnecessary with Macs.

I also decided to use some of our Macs in a dessert. I must confess, I love to have an overabundance of fruit or veggies that I need to figure out a way to use. I get inspired to try something new. In this case, I started with the idea of an apple pecan cobbler, peeked at a couple of recipes, then made this up with what I had on hand.

Apple Pecan Cobbler
By Tiffany Teske

Ingredients
~ 4 cups thinly sliced apples (I used 5 apples)
~ 1/2 c organic raw sugar
~ 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
~ 1/2 c chopped pecans
~ 1 c whole wheat pastry flour
~ 3/4 c brown sugar
~ 1 tsp baking powder
~ 1/4 tsp sea salt
~ 1 free range egg, beaten
~ 1/2 c evaporated milk
~ 1/3 c organic butter, melted
~ an additional 1/4 c chopped pecans

Directions
1) Preheat oven to 325° F. Generously grease a rectangular baking dish with butter.
2) Arrange apple slices in an even layer (not a single layer, they can cover one another but it should be about even in depth throughout) in baking dish. In a small bowl, mix raw sugar, cinnamon, and 1/2 c pecans. Sprinkle over apples.

3) In a medium bowl, mix flour, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl whisk egg, evaporated milk, and melted butter. Add milk mixture all at once to the dry ingredients and stir until smooth. Pour this over apples and sprinkle with the remaining 1/4 pecans.

(It had gotten dark outside by the time I got to this step so this doesn't look quite right in the artifical light...)

4) Bake for 55 - 60 minutes.

This is delicious with a little bit of evaporated milk or cream poured over it. Or you could make this sweet cream ice cream.

To make this recipe even better, why not support a local apple orchard or farm and buy your apples there. Take the kiddos and pick them yourself. For more on apple varieties check out pickyourown.org.