An Apple a Day

I bought a huge bag of apples the other day. And I'm not even the biggest fan of apples. I mean, I like them all right, but I'm not sure what posessed me to buy a five-pound bag of them, especially while I had a pound or so already at home. So what was the solution to the abundance of apples I had. Baking!

First I decided to bake a recipe I'd seen in Vegan with a Vengeance, and had thought would be nice for Christmas, gingerbread apple pie. Though I have what I consider to be a considerable amount more then the average person in baking and pastry education and experience, I hadn't made pie crust from scratch in years, but I wanted to stick with the recipe, since it sounded so good, and be vegan.

The result? Delicious apple yumminess. I had nothing to fear, the crust was so easy to make. And pressing it into the pan, instead of having to roll it out, made it so much easier for me as well, since I don't have a lot of counter space. Though the finished crust seemed more like a cookie to me then a pie crust, not that I'm complaining.

The filling was very easy to make, but I'm very used to making my own fillings. While I always used refridgerated pie crust before, I absolutly refuse to buy canned fruit fillings, I find them much too overly sweet, plus, except for a few brands, most of them are full of HFCS and artifical flavors - complete crap, which I try to avoid whenever possible.

I loved the finished pie, it was sweet, but had a nice spicy flavor. Not spicy hot, but very spiced from the cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and whatever else the recipe called for, plus cardamom, which I add to almost everything with those flavors.

That still left me with a lot of apples. When life gives you lemons, you're supposed to make lemonade, so when life, (or my mindless grocery shopping,) gives me apples, I have to make apple sauce. Also from Vegan with a Vengeance, (I've only had this book a week, and have already used it a half dozen times at least,) the roasted applesauce.

I diced up all the remaining apples I had, which were a mix of gala and macintosh, mixed them with what the recipe called for, using extra cinnamon. Cursed myself for not having a real lemon handy to zest, (I switched to using lemon juice from a plastic lemon, which isn't nearly as good as juice from a real lemon, but the cost difference really leaves me no choice,) and threw it in the oven. And then forgot about it in the oven. Luckily, they didn't burn.

After roasting I just grabbed my imersion blender, which other then my chef's knife and saute pan, is probably the item I use the most in my whole kitchen, and I suggest anyone who makes smoothies, soups, purees, or now, applesauce, buy one. Honestly, they're cheap, (I think I paid $10 for mine,) and they work wonders in the kitchen, with very easy clean up.

I loved the applesauce. Reminded me of my grandma's applesauce, except thicker with nice big chunks of apples. (Notice the quickly dissapearing pie in the picture.)