Festival of Apples

by Sidonie Maroon

We’re in a festival of apples, a parade de pomme of sweet, crisp and juicy. I spoke with produce manager Laura Llewellyn about her favorites:

“Right now, I think Nickajack is my favorite, from Okanagan Marketing Producers Association (OPMA). I also like Jonamac from Dungeness River Lamb Farm, and both are farm direct. Here’s a fun fact, almost all our varieties are farm direct right now – you could say we have over 20 farm direct varieties. 

I also LOVE Winter Banana which arrived last Friday from River Valley Organics. I like it when apples are sweet and tart with good texture. Winter Banana is just that, but doesn’t store well, so it’s only available for a really short season.” 

An apple for every occasion

Eating Apples

Listening to Laura makes me feel adventurous and want to branch out. My favorite eating apples are Braeburn, Spartan and Pink Lady. I wake up early, slice an apple and eat it with a chunk of Greenbank’s sharp cheddar, a pot of Russian Caravan tea with a creamer full of Dungeness Valley’s raw Jersey milk.

Baking Apples

I’m partial to good baking apples. A baking apple must be on the tart side, but with a hint of sweet. My ultimate pie or crisp would include three varieties. I’ve had success combining Bramley, Cameo and Jonagold. I Mix them in a jumble or, like in my tart recipe create layers of flavor by making the bottom compote with two varieties and the top with another. 

Apple Tart with Crumble Crust

Makes one 9-inch tart with enough for some extra smaller tarts

Simple elegant apple tart with rosette of apple slices.

Apple Ingredients

10 medium apples (best with tart local apples of several varieties)

Use 6 to make apple compote

Use 4 for apple slices on top of tart

½ teaspoon cinnamon

⅛ teaspoon powdered stevia

1 tablespoon whole cane sugar

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

Instructions for apple compote

Preheat oven to 425F

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper

Small dice apples, combine dry ingredients and sprinkle over apples and dot with butter

Roast for 20 min. Stir the apples and roast for another 15 min. Cool and puree until smooth

Instructions for Apple Top

Quarter, core and slice apples thinly ⅛ inch

If they break too easily when you’re forming the tart blanch them for 1 minute  

Crumble Crust Ingredients

2 cups old fashioned oatmeal

1 cup gluten free flour or flour of your choice

1 cup walnuts

1 cup pitted dates

1 cup unsalted cold butter cut into small cubes

1 teaspoon sea salt

2 teaspoons cinnamon

½ teaspoon quatre epices or pie spice

¼ cup whole cane sugar (rapadura)

¼ teaspoon stevia powder

Instructions for crumble dough

In a food processor combine all crumble ingredients and pulse until they comes together like a cookie dough.

Constructing and Baking the Tart

Press crumble dough ½ inch thick firmly into the bottom of a round 9-inch tart pan with removable bottom and chill while preparing apples

Preheat oven to 375F

Layer pureed cold apple compote over the crumble crust about ½ inch thick

Starting on the outside of the tart overlap by ½ the apple slices with peel side up and bottom stuck into the sauce as an anchor. Keep going around forming a rosette until you reach the middle of the tart. Use your thumb to hold the slice before in place as you add the next one. In the center, fold two slices ends towards each other to fill in. Brush the apples with melted butter.

Bake for 30 minutes or until apples are cooked as liked. 

My apple life— apple butter, dehydrating apples and making apple core vinegar

I love kitchen life; stirring apple butter as it comes to the boil, lifting jars out of the steaming canner while Kirtan music plays. More apples stare me down from a work bowl, waiting their turn in the dehydrator; how the low clouds shelter the day. These things.

I sterialize all jars and lids — laid out. When did I first make apple butter? It was early on, when we lived at Wiggins Rd. in Olympia. Was I twenty-two? No one taught me. My grandma taught me, in my teens, the basics of canning, but beyond that it was quiet learning. The only apples and cookbooks as guides.

In my thirties, I made apple butter on Berry Hill — opening the oven door, of my 1920s propane stove, pulling out the blue enamel roasting pan to stir every half hour. In those days, I added white wine and lemon zest.

For the past decade, I’ve used a slow cooker — filled with cored apples. I cook them down — then puree and bring them back to a simmer—letting them cook overnight on low with the lid cocked sideways so the juices evaporate; I use nothing but apples until the last, because I want to taste them. Just apples cooked down to the essence of everything they were—every bee visit — every ripening summer afternoon.

The tart cooking apples I’m working today with came from the homestead of an elderly couple who can’t care for their trees anymore, but who spent years pruning and making a productive orchard. They let us glean. I’ll send them a couple jars of apple butter, because it’s right to spread your own apples on toast with butter. I’ve added sugar and cinnamon to this batch with a touch of vanilla. I keep going back for taste tests, yum.

I’m making vinegar with the apple cores. Yesterday, I poured the juice off the spent cores. It tasted dry; I had a little glass. I added apple cider vinegar with ‘the veil of the mother’  to give it a good start.

Artists talk about their relationship with the materials. How their materials speak, the colors speak. They listen as the conversation builds… The canning water’s boiling and apple butter bubbles. My art will go on a pantry shelf to pull out this winter. The flavors will remind us, will help us remember what’s important.

Try this apple and pork filling with a grain-free walnut crust. Roll out small discs to make hand pies, or a free form larger pie with a top.

Apple and Prune Pork Pie

Filling

2 medium leeks, using the white parts, finely chopped

5 cloves garlic finely minced

1 lb ground pork

2 tablespoons lard or pork fat for sauteing

½ cup finely minced parsley

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 medium tart baking apple finely chopped

½ cup finely diced prunes

2 eggs beaten

Spices  (measure whole spices, grind and sift)

1 teaspoon fennel seed

1 teaspoon caraway seed

1 teaspoon dill seed

¼ teaspoon white peppercorns

1 teaspoon fine sea salt

Pork Mixture

Grind the spices and add to the raw pork. Saute the leeks, over a medium heat, in lard, until sweet and translucent about 5 to 8 minutes. 

Add the minced garlic, add the pork and cook until the juices run clear about 4 to 5 minutes. Add the apple, prunes, parsley and beaten egg. Refrigerate until needed. 

Walnut Pastry Dough

Makes enough for two 9-inch tarts or pide

15 minutes plus rolling and baking time

Amazing, a delicious pastry dough, without grain or added fats! It’s rich with all the nuts, but pastry is rich, so it’s still on the occasional treat list. Another attribute of this dough is how it rolls out and hangs together easily when baked. How does it taste? Like a good loaf of whole wheat bread right from the oven. It’s less like a flaky pie crust, and more like a brioche or yeasted crust. Use it for both sweet and savory recipes, whole pies or individual hand pies. I’m still experimenting with all its possibilities. As a gluten-free pie maker, I’m thrilled with how moldable it is, so I can create all the shapes and decorations that are sometimes difficult with gluten-free grain based doughs.      

Ingredients

1 cup walnuts

½ cup sunflower seeds

¼ cup flax meal

2 tablespoons psyllium husk powder

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon fine sea salt

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

½ cup boiling water

Directions for making the pastry

Using a Vitamix or high-powered blender, process all the dry ingredients together, on the highest speed, into a course flour. I run the machine until I hear the motor slowing down. Try to not have any large chunks of walnuts left, because they can tear the dough when you are rolling it out.

Dump the flour into a mixing bowl, using a spatula to get everything out. Break it up between your fingers until it resembles a fine meal. Add the boiling water and then the vinegar to a glass liquid measure and pour over it the flour, quickly mixing them together with the rubber spatula. Continue to mix until it comes together. Split the dough in half and now you’re ready to roll.

Rolling

You can make any shapes, and the dough rolls out thin without tearing or splitting. Tears press together easily. There’s no need to flour while rolling, but some oil on your hands will prevent sticking. For free form tarts, I like to roll the shape I want on parchment paper, add the fillings, fold the edges in, and then cut the parchment paper around the shape, with an inch border, using the paper under the tart to move it onto a baking sheet.

Baking 

Baking will depend on individual recipes, but a rough guide is to bake in a preheated 400F oven for 25 minutes. The thicker the dough the longer the pastry should bake. Allow the pastry cooling time to help set the dough. I like to reheat the pastries before serving, the toasted walnut flavors shine that way.