Adventures in Challah Stuffing

One half batch of my favorite challah dough... two loaves of challah stuffed with various delicious ingredients... two explosions in my oven.

First:  almond stuffed challah.

I got the idea after impulsively buying a bag of almond meal (finely ground almonds).  I thought that maybe I could make a filling for the challah that was reminiscent of the sugary almond paste that they put in those buttery, delicious almond croissants.

I made the filling according to this recipe and wrapped it into my usual no-knead challah dough.  Apparently I didn't wrap it tight enough, though, because after a few minutes in the oven it looked like the explosion you see below:

Luckily, all of that sweet, toasted almond shrapnel was pretty tasty, and a good amount of the filling stayed in the bread, creating a subtle swirl of almondy goodness throughout:

Second: spiced apple stuffed challah.

This one was to use up some Malang apples I had sitting in the fridge... I wanted to follow this recipe from What Jew Wanna Eat because I found her blog title and premise to be really hilarious, but I worried that the raw apples wouldn't cook sufficiently inside the bread and I wanted to make sure the spice flavors came through... so instead I sauteed 2 large peeled and diced apples in a teeny bit of butter, a couple dashes of cinnamon, a sprinkle each of cardamom and nutmeg, and about a tablespoon of honey.  Then I wrapped them up in the remaining challah dough, braided it and stuck it in the oven, at which point, you probably guessed, it exploded.

This one didn't have as much leakage as the almond challah, but was still bursting (literally) with apple pieces.  Tasted pretty damn good, though.

The next day it was a little soggy from the moisture of the apples, but a quick warming in the oven took care of that.

Pork Roast with Prunes, Red Wine and Rosemary

I had the girls over for "TV Club," which is basically book club, but instead of reading a book every couple months and talking about it, we watch DVDs of shows from the premium channels that all of us are too cheap to buy. Last round we watched the first 2 seasons of True Blood, which is bloody and campy (and a little confusing if you've read the books), and now we're watching United States of Tara, which is pretty funny and thought-provoking.

Today's meeting was over lunch. Roast pork loin in a rosemary, red wine and prune sauce was the main course. Yes, I know prunes have a bad rep... they even had to change their name to "dried plums" because everyone has such negative associations with prunes. But this recipe was really good! Earthy, rich, fruity, a little sweet... I pureed the sauce while the pork was resting, which I think was a nice touch. Served with Israeli couscous, kohlrabi/carrot/apple salad, and a green mixed salad, topped off with some totally addictive "puppy chow." Pretty tasty all around!

Maple/Apple Pork Chops

These maple and apple pork chops were super easy and really tasty. A little sweet from the apple and maple, but the sweetness is tempered by the mustard and lemon juice. The sauce bubbles up and makes a delicious glaze for the pork.Served with roasted sweet potatoes with cinnamon, cumin and chipotle, plus a green salad.

Sloppy Joes and Kohlrabi/Apple/Carrot Slaw

Remember way back when I made these "adult" sloppy joes (wow, that sounds dirty!)? Yeah, they're still good. Bourbon, smoked paprika, cayenne... mmmm.

Served them with this awesomely simple crunchy slaw made from kohlrabi (that alien-looking member of the Brassica family), Granny Smith apples and carrots with cider vingar, olive oil and honey (I skipped the swiss chard stems in the recipe...).

Curried Squash, Cauliflower and Apple Soup with Pizza Dough Breadsticks

With 3 days to go before braving I-95 and heading home for the holidays, I found myself trying to find uses for the random assortment of veggies crowding my fridge and counter. Cue curried winter squash/cauliflower/apple soup, served with apple/walnut/goat cheese/pomegranate salad and pizza dough breadsticks.

Loosely based on a couple of recipes, the soup came out pretty well! I took the veggie cues from this one (although I used one kabocha squash, a whole head of cauliflower, and 2 apples) and the spices from this one (plus a couple teaspoons of garam masala). Swirled in some sour cream when I served it.

Then, for the breadsticks, I used leftover pizza dough from the other night, and generally followed these instructions for turning them into twisty breadsticks. I brushed mine with olive oil and sprinkled them with garlic salt. Mine didn't poof up as much as hers did, but that's probably because I was using dough that was several days old. They were tasty anyway!

Sweet Potato, Apple, Cheddar and Caramelized Onion Gratin

This sweet potato, apple, cheddar and caramelized onion gratin has a lot of potential. The flavor was great: spicy, sweet, creamy. The texture was a little off, partially due to my inconsistent slicing, but partially due to either too much sauce or a too-runny sauce. I can't decide. But the flavor was delicious enough to try again! I'll report back with any changes I make...

Dried Apples!

I had a coupon for a big bag of apples from the new grocery section at the neighborhood Target, so I bought the bag and used the opportunity to try out the dehydrator that Mike and Jamie gave me for my birthday. I decided to start my dehydrating adventures with something simple and straightforward: dried apple slices. I figure I can snack on the dried apples at work or use them in granola or granola bars.
The dehydrator worked great! The apples were consistently dried, chewy and sweet.

My next dehydrating escapade may be beef jerky, or perhaps fruit roll-ups. I've been eyeing these jerky recipes from a recent Food & Wine article: black pepper jerky, or maybe Mexican lime jerky.

Roasted Acorn Squash with Maple Syrup and Chicken and Apples with Honey Mustard Sauce

Two recipes from Simply Recipes last week... I tackled this simple roasted acorn squash last week, while Chuck cooked this chicken with apples with honey mustard sauce, while Madison and Tim worked on their Halloween costumes.The roasted squash was tasty, although I think I came to the conclusion that I like butternut squash better than acorn squash... it seems sweeter and not as stringy.

The chicken had a good flavor, but the directions seemed a little weird... why would you bread the chicken, and then have the breaded chicken simmer in sauce? The breading soaked up the sauce and got super soggy. But the sauce tasted good!

Served with roasted broccoli...

Grilled Rosemary and Dijon Chicken Thighs

Lots of leftover chicken after our beach weekend. Needed an easy way to cook and use it up quickly... queue Meghan and Liz, who volunteered their rooftop for some grillin'. I marinated the chicken thighs in rosemary, Dijon, honey and garlic, based on this recipe, figuring that was a good flavor combination for re-use of leftovers in chicken salad, etc. I forgot to take a picture of the grilled chicken itself because it was a wee bit dark on the rooftop (better to see the cool moon last night).However, I did get a photo of the chicken salad made with the leftover chicken... made with Greek yogurt, mayo, celery, green onions, apples, dried cranberries and a touch of parsley. Mmm.

Boneless Pork Chops with Apple Chutney

We really liked this chutney from the other Martha... a little spicy, a little vinegary, a little sweet. Be careful not to overcook the pork chops if, like ours, yours are a little on the thin side.

We're trying the remainder of the chutney on turkey sandwiches tomorrow for lunch- will let you know how it tastes in that context!
Tonight the pork and chutney was served with some subpar roasted sweet potato and parsnip fries. They turned out kinda floppy when I was hoping for crisp. Oh well.

Whole Wheat Apple Muffins

I still had apple bobbing apples (Macintoshes) left, but they weren't crisp enough for straight eating, so I had to come up with some more apple recipes. This King Arthur Flour recipe got the seal of approval from Smitten Kitchen as well as some other bloggers, and I had all the ingredients, so whole wheat apple muffins it was.

These are pretty good! Lots of apples, the muffins were moist. I added some chopped walnuts for texture. I also ended up making mini muffins- I cooked them at 450 for 5 minutes, then turned the heat down to 400 and cooked them for 8 more minutes. It made about 3 dozen mini muffins.

Gingerbread-Apple Upside-Down Cake

I saw this recipe in today's New York Times food section and had to give it a try. I'm glad I did! This was a light and fluffy gingerbread cake with a caramely/appley topping... yum.

The only ingredient I didn't have in my pantry was buttermilk, but I improvised by using milk and lemon juice. I didn't want to make a whole cake since it was just me and Chuckie, so I halved the recipe and put it in some mini-springform pans (which may not have been the best choice since some of the caramel leaked onto the bottom of the oven). They were so cute, though! I cooked them for about 30 minutes... until a tester came out clean.

Smitten Kitchen's Apple Cake

Tim needed a dish to bring to his office potluck, and one that could be served cold or heated in the microwave. Since I think most things heated in the microwave end up having the consistency of rubber, we opted for a dessert that could be served at room temperature... Smitten Kitchen's apple cake.

This was also the time for apple cake since we had a million apples leftover from a game of apple bobbing that was truly misguided in this season of swine flu paranoia!!

We'll see how the cake turns out. I can't cut it open yet because it has to be pretty enough to entice Tim's coworkers to purchase a piece tomorrow (proceeds go to United Way). I think I forgot to put the nuts in the cake... don't tell.

UPDATE: Tim tells me the cake was "really good," as in "good enough to win best dessert" at Nathan Associate's potluck fundraiser. Apparently we are now the proud owners of two tickets to Mt. Vernon.

Apple Brown Betty

I saw this recipe for Apple Brown Betty on The Slow Cook, which is a blog written by a fellow Columbia Heights resident who has a massive garden in front of his row house. I had a bunch of aging apples from the past several weeks of CSA, as well as some somewhat petrified challah that I made last week, so I figured it was a go... plus I really like the name "apple brown betty."

I used an amalgamation of a bunch of different recipes... but in a nutshell, I layered brown sugar/cinnamon/nutmeg with melted butter covered challah bread crumbs and sliced apples covered in lemon juice. Baked at 375 for 40 minutes covered in foil, then set under the broiler for 3 minutes to brown. Served with vanilla ice cream! Easy and tasty alternative to apple crisp.

Apple Rhubarb Crisp

I asked Chuck to throw this crisp together on her day off in order to use the last of this season's rhubarb and 3 or 4 random apples we had floating around in the veggie drawer from CSA shares past.

It stuck to the pan a bit and got a wee bit burnt on the edges despite being taken out 10 minutes early, which confused us a bit at first. Then I glanced at the recipe while writing up this post, and realized that it was supposed to bake at 350 degrees, not 450, which is what Chuck set the oven to... oops!

No harm, though. It tasted great with some whipped cream.

Jennifer provided the artistically placed mint sprig. Tim was worried the mint would leave an unappealing "taint" on his crisp, which made us giggle.

Goat Cheese Apple Tartlets

These apple tarts are made with apples and goat cheese from the farmers market, and puff pastry from the freezer. Pretty fancy, but super easy.


PS: Chuck gets most of the credit for doing most of the work on these. I was busy making the main course, which was chicken thighs with mushrooms and white wine and roasted root vegetables with rosemary and thyme.

Chicken Samiches

Made these grilled chicken sandwiches with apples and sage pesto today to use up some sage and apples from the CSA. Pretty good! Put it on ciabatta from the bread book.