The working title of this post was “Bitches Love Apples” and I stand by it.
I think that we can all agree that 2020 has been a trip. Remember December 2019 where we were primarily occupied with how to plan our Roaring 20’s New Year’s Eve parties? I mean, I wasn’t, because I prefer to spend New Year’s in my pajamas eating ice cream and going to bed at 12:01 am, but I digress. There is so much unfamiliar about this year so far that it seems people are eager to seek out and cling to traditional seasonal activities. For the Hickman household, this has manifested in all things apple.
I started with apple fruit leather. I’ll link the recipe that I used (loosely) here, but honestly this project was more about the experience than the actual product. I think that making fruit leather is worthwhile even if just to make the house smell delicious for the 8+ hours that it sits in the oven drying out. The payoff wasn’t huge, just a few strips of leather, but as a project I felt pretty triumphant. One thing to note – recipes say that you can use parchment paper in place of a silicone baking mat (like this one), but I can’t imagine robbing myself of the satisfaction of peeling the leather up off the silicone. Magic, for real.
Next up, the only thing that I’ve ever made successfully in my Instant Pot – apple butter. Though, to be honest, I think that what I actually made qualified more as applesauce, so perhaps “successfully” is giving myself a bit more credit than is due. In any event, it smelled and tasted delicious so I think I win. I worked off of this recipe, but didn’t have pumpkin pie spice, so I just threw in various amounts of nutmeg, ginger, clove and (a lot of) cinnamon. The pressure cooking part went just fine, though things did get a little dicey when the immersion blender got involved (picture me trying to dodge bits of very hot apple liquid attacking my forearms). Ultimately, I probably should have let things simmer for a bit longer and thicken up, but naptime was almost over and I like applesauce better anyway.
Our latest foray into apple delights is apple strudel – Rick has been talking about strudel for months and, since I didn’t jump at the chance to make puff pastry, he took matters into his own hands. No recipe to link here, because he refuses to use them, but granny smith apples, raisins, chopped walnuts and some spices wrapped up in store-bought puff pastry made for a quick and easy (and delicious) strudel. He also learned the magic of the KitchenAid to whip cream, and my personal favorite touch was our second-day strudel breakfast which featured the left over whipped cream piped artfully out of the Ziploc it was stored in. We’re super fancy over here, folks.
I think next up we’re going to tackle a pie. I was spoiled growing up by homemade pie crusts, so there’s no casual chopping up some fruit and throwing it in a frozen shell to be had here. I’m not a purist (you do you), but homemade crust tastes so much better, even if it’s ugly and torn and makes you cry. Clearly, I’m looking forward to it. There’s also talk (by me) of planting an apple tree or two in the yard. Rick raised an eyebrow and asked me if I was going to harvest the apples. Sure, I say. Definitely. Fast forward three years when our side yard is full of apples everywhere and I’m paying E quarters to pick them up for me. We’ll tackle that when we get there. For now, things are weird and bitches love apples.*
*It’s me, I’m bitches.
Hickmans at Home 