Tag: apples

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Apple Season

Dolgo Crabapples, makes the best jelly

There are seventy-five hundred varieties of apples in the world, a third of these get grown in the United States. If you are still picking up Red Delicious at the grocery you’re missing .  .  .  a lot  .  .  .  of great apples.

Now most of these varieties come from crosses of heirloom trees and their differences lay mostly in minute fluctuations in sweetness. It is also worth noting, how very difficult it would be to find samples of all apple varieties in any one place.

Fruit trees are regionally specific, but the Pacific Northwest is a major player in apple production.

There aren’t many types of fruit that offer this level of variety. Nor, perhaps, share the apples level of popularity.

In recent years the types of apples you’d find at a local grocer has expanded. To some degree this is being pushed by a more global market.

However, family orchards, like you find on the hills above Hood River, have done their part in the propagation of old and introduction of new apple types, as well as other fruit varieties.

Hillsides filled with orchards and exposure to so many different types of fruit is the reason we drive to the Hood River a few times every Fall.

The Kiyokawa Fruit Stand

The Kiyokawa Family Orchard grows around a hundred varieties of apples, from Akane to Zestar, most of which won’t show-up in the produce aisle at your local grocer.

Warren Pears

There’s also a couple dozen different types of pears . . . Anjou to Warren, and again lots of unique names. At any given point in the season there will be thirty different boxes and bins of tree ripened fruit to choose from.

Still room for some more fruit in that bag

What is ready for sale sits in a ring of wooden racks supporting boxes loaded with fruit and wearing placards noting sweetness level and some tasting notes. You buy a container (bag or box) sized to meet your needs and then fill that bag from any of the available boxes.

We chose the standard bag which held a couple dozen apples and half a dozen pears. This translated into six different apple varieties and two different kinds of pears. We also picked up a couple of small bins of plums, most of which were devoured on the trip back over the mountain to home.

Is it really fall before you fill a bag with fresh apples grown on the hills overlooking the Columbia River?

. . .  I don’t think so.

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Simple as Apple Pie

Joy through untracked powder
Start of winter

Gradually the days grow colder and our interest in the weather is focused on the next snowstorm.

We’ve finished up this year’s canning projects, and our plan to replenish a dwindling supply of Apple Butter and Crabapple Jelly is now complete.

If you spend time in a kitchen it’s likely you’ve put-up jam. If you tend a garden, you know the difference between hot-water bath and pressure canning.

While not essential, most pantries benefit from simple canning efforts. It is a great way to elevate your PB&J.

Elstar apples, honeyed & crisp

We’d put up a few pints of jam at the height of berry season, but the cool days of fall make it a much more pleasant task.

Farmer’s markets present good places to pick fresh for a dinner or two, but not for canning. Between the last sunny days of August and that first snow in October we swing through the Fruit Loop and pick out a mix of eating and cooking apples, as well as a handful of pears.

Apple Hand Pies

This week we finished up the last of the apples with a baking project. Apple pie scaled to Hand Pie . . . not turnovers but with laminated dough. Joanne Chang has a recipe for a flaky, buttery crust which we fill with apple, cinnamon and sugar. Perfect pie for a picnic box and very easy to make.

We’ll attach the recipes to the bottom of the post and encourage you to try the crust recipe on any pie.

Print Recipe

Master Single-Crust Pate Brisee

Author: Joanne Chang/Pastry Love

Ingredients

  • 1 cup AP flour [140 g]
  • 2 tsp sugar
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 1/8 sticks unsalted butter [130 g]
  • 1 large Egg yok (at room temperature)

Instructions

  • In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, paddle together the flour, sugar, and salt for 10 to 15 seconds. Cut the butter into about 12 pieces and add it to the flour mixture. Paddle slowly until the flour is no longer bright white and the mixture holds together when you clump it, and there are still lumps of butter the size of pecans throughout…30-45 seconds.
  • Whisk together the egg yolk and milk in a small bowl and add them all at once to the flour-butter mixture. Paddle very briefly, just until it barely comes together, about 30 seconds it will look really shaggy and more like a mess than a dough.
  • Dump the dough out into a clean work surface and gather it together into a tight mound. Using the heel of your hand, smear the dough starting at the top of the mound and sliding your hand down the sides of the mound along the work surface, until most of the butter chunks are smeared into the dough and the whole thing comes together. (The technique is called fraisage, and makes for a very flaky pie dough.)
  • Wrap the dough tightly with plastic wrap and press down to make a disk about 1 inch thick. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour before using.
  • The dough can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 4 days or in the freezer for up to 4 weeks. Wrap in another layer of plastic if storing for more than 1 day
Print Recipe

Fruit Hand Pies

Author: Joanne Chang / Pastry Love

Ingredients

  • 1 recipe Master Single - Crust Pate Brisee
  • 250 grams fresh or frozen fruit
  • 1 large egg for egg wash
  • 1 Tbsp sanding sugar

Blueberry filling [250 grams ]

  • 3 Tbsp superfine sugar
  • 1 Tbsp cornstarch
  • 1/8 tsp salt
  • ¼ tsp grated lemon zest

Apple Filling [250 grams]

  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1-2 Tbsp flour
  • pinch Salt, Cinnamon, and Nutmeg

Instructions

for Blueberry filling

  • In a  saucepan, combine about ¾ of the blueberries, the superfine sugar, cornstarch, and salt, and stir together with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula. Turn the heat on medium high and stir occasionally, until the blueberries start to soften and let out juice. Bring the mixture just to a boil, then remove from heat. Add the remaining blueberries and the lemon zest and stir to combine. Set aside to cool to room temperature.

For Apple Filling

  • Peel, core and slice apples into small bite size pieces. Add brown sugar, flour and seasonings and stir. Allow to macerate (soften) for ½ hour.

Basic Hand Pie

  • Preheat oven to 325 degrees and place a rack in the center of the oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set it aside. Remove the pate brisee from the fridge about 15 minutes before using it to soften slightly.
  • Generously flick flour over the work surface. Portion out 6 individual pieces of the dough and roll each one out in a circle 1/8 inch thick. Dock the dough all over with a fork. Lay the circles on parchment paper. Whisk the egg for the egg wash in a small bowl. Use a pastry brush to brush the egg wash over the perimeter of one circle. Place 2 heaping tablespoons of the fruit filling in the middle of the circle. Carefully fold the circle over the filling to make a half-moon keeping the filling inside and press firmly around the edge of the circle to seal. Repeat to fill the remaining circles.
  • Freezing Hand Pies: At this point you can freeze the hand pies on a baking sheet until solid. Transfer them to an airtight container, and store in the freezer for up to 2 weeks. When you are ready to bake the pies, remove them from the freezer and bake as instructed, adding up to 5 minutes to the baking time.
  • Brush the tops of the hand pies with the remaining egg wash and sprinkle them evenly with the sanding sugar. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes, rotating the baking sheet midway through the baking time, until the pies are evenly golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool.
  • Hand pies should be enjoyed the same day they are baked, but they can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature overnight. If you are serving them the next day, refresh them in a 300 degree oven for about 8 minutes.
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Seasonal journeys

In this house there is always fruit on the counter and in the fridge. We do play favorites and eat mostly to season. Winter is citrus, berries for Spring, Summer is stone fruit and Fall is all about apples and melons.

I think apples are my favorite for everyday eating. Thus we look forward to the fall and our annual trip to the orchards that line the hills around Hood River, Oregon.  We make this pilgrimage pretty much every fall for the last dozen years and we always go to the same spot.

Kiyokawa Family Orchards (yeah, I don’t know how to pronounce it either) is about the only place we ever go. There are lots of different stands in the area, check out the Fruit Loop map and website. This place has a huge variety of apples, pears, and plums.

In the past it was a giant apple tasting. Due to current Covid circumstances, they have altered the buying experience a bit. The slices for tasting aren’t sitting on the bins of fruit. They also stopped individually weighing your purchases. Instead, you move through a well thought out social distancing maze, pick out either a box or bag, pay, then proceed to fill with fruit of your choice.

Winding your way past tubs of fruit, you can pick from all offerings, exiting near where you started, only now you have a box of apples and pears.

The only problem is trying to remember the different varieties and maintaining tasting notes so you can find the ones you like best next year.

– book note –

 

You should find a copy of Dan Rather’s recent book “What Unites Us”. A timely discussion on America, democracy and the fragile threads holding our nation together. We’ve been working through it a chapter at a time, reading it aloud to each other. Excellent book, sparking energetic discussion.

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Apple Sliced

There are a few challenges when trying to eat healthy and pack lunch to go. Looking for a treat to accompany that sandwich, my inclination is to throw in a couple of Snicker bars.

Instead, we load the compartments of a bento box with almonds and dates.

Then a second box is loaded with sliced apples, only there is a twist on these slices.

Core the apple, split it in half and I like to cut off the ends, just too much skin. Spread a thin layer of cinnamon on a piece of paper towel. Set the flat half of the apple on the cinnamon and coat it. Then cut into ¼ inch thick slices.

Prepared this way and stored in a bento box, the apple doesn’t seem to brown and is a really great snack.

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Quick turn on the Fruit Loop

In the land of ‘mega-marts’ we’ve grown accustomed to picking up any type of produce any time of the year.  It’s not as convenient, but buying seasonal offerings will support a local farmer and taste better too.

We are in the midst of apple season so you are likely to see a larger selection of apples at the produce counter. That variety can get even bigger if you make an extra effort and go to the orchard. In Oregon that is pretty easy to do..

Some time in late September early October we make the annual trek to Hood River country and do a bit of orchard hopping.

At Kiyokawa Orchards there are warehouse size bins filled with apples and pears. And not just a couple of kinds. At peak season there are 120 varieties of apples and 24 varieties of European and Asian pears. Plus a bunch of different plums.

The hills pushing up from the Columbia River west of Hood River are full of fruit orchards, dotted with yellow and orange fall foliage and a snowcapped Mt. Hood as the back drop.

‘The Fruit Loop’ started in the early 90’s as a way to promote local on-farm sales when a collective of Hood River orchards printed a map to help people find their stands.

We come for the selection at Kiyokawa’s and maybe a quick stop at Pfriem Brewery for a growler of Sesson. Its well worth the drive.