Vegan Apple Tart

A friend of ours has gone vegan for Lent and when we decided to get together for dinner, she tasked us with dessert. Actually, what she said was that we should just plan on dessert for us because it's next to impossible to find vegan dessert. Do I hear a challenge? Luckily, I recently had a delicious dessert at my neighbor's house that just so happened to be vegan. Ha! Take that! It's actually quite tasty and since it's apples and whole wheat bread, I don't feel guilty eating it. 


Vegan Apple Tart
1 batch pizza dough
4 large apples (I used red delicious since that's what they were selling as the "seconds" at the farmer's market that week)
juice of one lemon
1 tblsp sugar (or more to taste)
cinnamon (to taste)
Prepare pizza dough. Cut apples into 1/4 inch slices. Put in bowl with lemon juice, sugar, and cinnamon. Shape and place on a cookie pan or casserole dish. Layer apple slices on the dough. (You can do this either functionally or artfully. I'm pretty bad at the artful stuff. I alternated mine in rows of slices with the curved side facing the same direction. Right. That makes perfect sense to me.) Sprinkle top with a little bit of sugar and cinnamon. Bake at 400 until crust and apples look delicious and lightly browned. 

Apple Pie

I had this bright idea to make an apple pie for Thanksgiving. I had never made one, but I had a pie crust in the freezer and a bunch of apples from the farmer's market. My confidence faded fast after I stated out loud that I would bring a pie to dinner. It worked out, though, and the pie was quite tasty. Next time I'll take a stab at making the crust too.

Apple Pie

1 frozen pie crust

3 apples (I used stayman winesaps), peeled and cut into 1/4 inch pieces

1/4 cup sugar

3 tblsp lemon juice

2 tblsp AP flour

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Topping

3/4 cup AP flour

1 cup oatmeal

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup sugar (Or just use 1/2 cup brown sugar. I ran out.)

1 tsp cinnamon

pinch salt

1 stick cold butter cut into small pieces

Precook pie crust according to package instructions. Put apples, sugar, lemon juice, flour, and cinnamon in a large bowl and toss until apples are coated and set aside. In a separate bowl, mix flour, oatmeal, sugars, cinnamon, and salt. Cut butter in by hand and until small lumps form and set aside. Arrange apples in the pie crust. I tried to place them in a nice circle. It looks really easy when they do it on TV. It wasn't so easy for me. I went with a rough circle and decided that the topping would cover up anything that didn't look perfect. Drizzle any remaining juices over the apples. Top with the oatmeal mixture. Bake at 350 for 35 minutes or until top is lightly browned.

Whipped Cream

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1/4 cup sugar

Combine in a chilled bowl. Beat with hand mixer until stiff peaks are formed.

The Simplest Things

Sometimes the simplest things end up being the most delicious. Finding myself with so many apples that my fridge is overflowing and an abundance of cheddar cheese, I decided to just have apples and cheese for lunch. But since I was cold, I decided a warm lunch would hit the spot.

Grilled Cheese and Apples
2 slices whole grain bread
cheddar cheese
thinly sliced apples
butter or margarine
Butter one side of both slices of bread. Assemble sandwiches with apple and cheddar to your taste. Grill until bread is golden and cheese is completely melted. Enjoy!

Stewed Apples... kinda

Have you ever tried to recreate something that you last had when you were five? No? That makes you waaaay smarter than me! I've been trying to recreate my great-grandmother's stewed apples for years. Failure after failure plagues me. Luckily, when you fail on stewed apples, you end up with applesauce, which is also awesomely tasty!

Chunky Applesauce (version 982)
5 stayman winesap apples, peeled and cut into 3/4 inch chunks
1 cup apple cider
2 tblsp brown sugar
1 cinnamon stick
Add all ingredients to a medium saucepan and cook over medium low heat. Stir gently every couple of minutes. Cook approximately 30 minutes or until the sauce thickens.