Rustic Apple Galette

It was such a beautiful weekend here and even a cold wasn't going to stop me from enjoying this beautiful weekend. Saturday I was at least feeling a little well enough to take a trip to go apple picking!

The type of apples that we picked were called "Melrose." I had never heard of them before, but they were a delicious snacking apple. Hopefully they would bake as good as they tasted. I did a little research on them, and according to allaboutapples.com (catchy name) the Melrose apple is the official Ohio state apple!

I have always wanted to try and make a galette. It's sort of like a rustic, free-form pie. The one hurdle was that you have to make your own pie crust. However, I think I tackled that huddle pretty well.

Pre-bake.

Post-bake.

I was over at my parents when I made this so we all got to enjoy this fall treat. We topped it off with a scoop of ice cream. Warm apples and cool vanilla ice cream. Love fall.

Rustic Apple Galette

(adapted from Another One Bites the Crust)

Ingredients

Crust

1 1/2 cup AP flour

1/3 cup butter

1 tbsp shortening

3-4 tbsp ice water

Filling

5 apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced

3 tbsp sugar

juice from 1 lemon

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp ginger

Optional Ingredients

turbinado sugar

milk

Method

1. In a large bowl, add the flour. Working quickly so the butter stays cold, cut the butter into a small dice and add to the flour along with the shortening. Using either a fork or a pastry cutter, cut the butter and shortening into the flour until it resembles course sand.

2. Add the water, tablespoon by tablespoon, until the dough just comes together. Use more water if necessary.

3. Form dough into a ball and cover in plastic wrap. Chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before using.

4. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees F.

5. For the filling, mix all ingredients (apples, sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger) in a large bowl until apples are evenly coated with other ingredients.

6. Roll dough into a free-form circle until it is 1/4 inch thick. Place dough circle on baking tray of choice, such as a cookie sheet. (I used a round baking stone)

7. Pour filling into center of dough circle and roll the edges of the dough over the filling about 1 inch, to form a crust.

8. (optional) Push crust with milk and sprinkle with turbinado sugar.

9. Bake for 40 minutes or until crust is golden brown.

Pumpkin Nutella Bread

It's that time of the year again for...

PUMPKIN!!!

Fall is probably my favorite season and one of those reasons is because of all the delicious pumpkin treats there are to make. Luckily this year we won't be experiencing a pumpkin shortage like last year. And what a better thing to combine pumpkin with than...

NUTELLA!!!

And of course I love a good quick bread so when I saw this recipe I knew that was going to be next on my list for baking. I changed the original up a little bit, using my beloved combo of AP and whole wheat flour for the dry ingredients and adding apple sauce to keep the bread moist. The hardest part was trying to eat all of the Nutella out of the jar. Just the smell of the hazelnuts and chocolate wafting from the container...I couldn't resist a few swipes with my finger.

Not very appetizing...yet.

I love the swirl pattern the Nutella makes on top of the bread. Reminds me of cheesecake brownies.

That's better...looking delicious.

Even better.

Definitely delicious hot out of the oven. I probably should have cooked it a little longer, the bottom was a little gummy but none the less warm, gooey, and completely reminded me how much I love this time of year.

Pumpkin Nutella Bread

(adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod)

Ingredients

2/3 cup AP flour

2/3 cup whole wheat flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 Tbsp. cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1 1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup apple sauce

1/3 cup water

1 cup pumpkin puree

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

4 Tbsp. Nutella

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 8X4 loaf pan with cooking spray. Set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together dry ingredients: flours, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Set aside.

3. In a large bowl, whisk together wet ingredients: sugar, apple sauce, water, pumpkin, eggs, and vanilla.

4. Slowly stir in dry ingredients to wet ingredients until thoroughly combined.

5. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan, making sure the batter in spread evenly. Drop teaspoon sized amounts of Nutella over top of batter. Swirl Nutella into the batter with a knife.

6. Bake for 50-60 minutes. Cool on wire rack for 15 minutes before turning the bread out of the pan to completely cool.