Apple Cake

This is a simple versatile cake that could be baked in a square pan with a crumb topping or some powdered sugar on top for a morning coffee cake or dressed up for an afternoon cake with a glaze or served with some freshly whipped cream. Either way, it's easy, lower in fat and comes together quickly. This was adapted from the Bob's Red Mill Whole Grain Baking Book You could easily substitute pears for apples or add in some walnuts or pecans.

Apple Bundt Cake (serves 12)

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour or spelt flour
1 cup all purpose flour (or you can use 2 cups all purpose in place of the whole wheat pastry flour)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
6 TBS olive oil (or you can use melted butter or vegetable oil)
2 TBS milk
1/2 cup mashed banana
1 tsp vanilla
3 eggs
2 1/2 cups apples peeled (1 cup grated and 1 1/2 cups cut into a small dice)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Stir together all the dry ingredients (flour through salt). In a separate bowl mix together the oil, milk, banana, eggs, and vanilla. Stir together the wet and dry ingredients, adding in the apples before it is fully mixed. Mix just until everything comes together and pour into a greased and floured bundt pan and bake until the springs back when touched, or if a skewer is inserted it comes out clean with a few crumbs attached. Start checking for doneness after 30 minutes.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

If you've looked thorough my previous posts you've probably have already come across this recipe. I was inspired to take a second look at this recipe after my mother in law had commented when she made them they didn't turn out like she had remembered having them when they were visiting. After thinking about it and making them again to check for measurements I decided it was probably the pumpkin. I have a small stock pile of freshly roasted sugar pumpkin in my freezer which means I never need to use canned pumpkin, but the sugar pumpkin puree has a lot more moisture which would certainly affect the texture of the cookies... So while I was making these cookies again to make sure all the measurements were correct I've made a few changes to the recipe which you can see here. These cookies are very cakey and not too high in fat so they are better eaten the day they are made or even the day after (they go really well with your morning cup of coffee). The batter can easily keep in the refrigerator for a few days and then beyond that you can scoop the dough onto a lined sheet pan and freeze the dough for later. Nothing is more handy than when you are craving some freshly baked cookies and all you have to do is go to the freezer and pull a few cookies out and 20 minutes later you have freshly cookies!