Wolf River Apples

It's time for summer apples around here - those small, early ones that are just starting to ripen.  I got these at the farmer's market on Saturday from a couple who were displaying several baskets of little apples with different names.

Ever since I read Michael Pollen's book The Botany of Desire, I've wanted to discover and taste new varieties of apples.  Even with the newly expanded collection of apples at the store (Jazz, Ambrosia, Honey Crisp) I can't help but wonder how different our apple choices would be if the Golden and Red Delicious hadn't been so perfect for...grocery stores.

So of course, I was a sucker for the hand-written sign next to these lovelies:

Wolf River Antique Apples - Best for Pies

I  cut out the cores and the little worm holes and sliced them up.  I love slicing apples for pies.  One summer, I worked in a bakery - minimum wage, no training - and loved it.  It was consistently 120 degrees in the back of this small place, no place to sit but the sacks of flour, which are not as soft as you might imagine, and lots of repetitive tasks, like washing pots and pans over and over.  I loved it.  That's where I learned to make apple pies, peel an apple skin off in one piece and get pretty even slices in a flash (but that's a story for another post!).  Back to Wolf River....

Uncooked, they had a slightly citrus, starchy flavor.  We ate a few slices with some New Moon Cheese from Chapel Hill Creamery (my favorite!) and they were great against the fresh creamy taste of the cheese.

I tossed the apples with some butter, brown sugar, oats and cinnamon, covered them and put them in the oven at 375.  My best guess at a recipe on this one:

5 small apples, sliced

2 TB butter, melted

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2-3/4 cups oats (rolled, not quick)

They baked for about 20 minutes and the apples got pretty steamy in the dish - they might have stayed more firm if I'd peeled them, but I like the skin.  They were not a juicy apple, keeping a relatively firm texture in spite of the steam, so I do think they'd be "best in pies".  Next time, I'd add a little salt to bring out their flavor more, and maybe experiment with some of the curry/pepper/spicy combinations I've seen drifting from dinner into dessert lately.

Worth the adventure.  Can't wait to see what kind of apples they have next time.

What a Cream Puff

Sometimes, you go all out. 

We made desserts for a party a couple of weeks ago, and the profiteroles were a real treat.  What could be better than a pastry filled with cream and dunked in chocolate, really?  I've only made them a couple of times before with recipes from the Pie and Pastry Bible.  No single step in the process is difficult...but oh the time!  It's no wonder we don't have these every weekend.

The dough for the cream puffs is a simple flour-based mixture, cooked in a saucepan for just a few minutes.  Then you scoop it into an icing bag and pipe little blobs on a cookie sheet.  The kids had a great time learning to use the bag - it's as if all that training with play-dough was just to prepare them for this. 

The little blobs magically transform into little puffs in the oven, and after they've cooked a short time, you turn the oven off and they dry out while you head to the pool for a swim.

Delightful little hollow things! 

While we turned them over and made the holes, my son and I had a lengthy discussion of what a cream puff was, literally and in the pushover sense.  The pastry bag is then refilled with pastry cream (also easy to make stovetop, the day before) and a squirt of cream goes in the hole in the bottom of each puff. 

The choclate glaze in the cookbook was as easy as can be - microwaved cream over chocolate chips left to set until they melt.  Each puff was dipped in the choclate sauce and nestled on the platter.

You can see them in the back:

The recipe says they're best if eaten within three hours of being filled, so they were the last thing we made.  We have yet to know what they taste like past their three-hour-birthday, however.

Perfection in a puff.