I love the flavor of pumpkin, so I was inspired to try Jacques Pepin’s pumpkin gratin.Very disappointing – neither the pumpkin flavor nor the cheese flavor comes through particularly strongly. I’m thinking either of doubling up on the cheese, or changing from Swiss to something more pungent … any ideas, cooks? The extra cheese would probably throw off the chemistry a little, but since it’s basically a custard, a little extra cooking should take care of that. (Beyond the little extra it already took – I ended up cooking it about 50 or 55 minutes trying to get the middle to set.)
Also, I’ve had a craving for apple crisp – anyone have a good recipe for that? I’ve got three pounds of Fujis willing to sacrifice their little apple-y lives for this.
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup melted butter
dash of salt
Nutmeg and Cinnamon to taste
Handful of pecans or walnuts crushed/chopped to mood to be placed on top of crumble before going into oven (optional)
Just mix the flour, oats, sugar salt, and spices together and them pour in the melted butter. Stir together with a spoon unless it’s no longer dry (it will of course be crumbly in texture and tend to form clumps).
Fruit:
I rarely use apples, and I can’t remember if I prebaked them or not, I don’t think I did but I ended up baking it about as long as I dared (I bake at 350 F). And when I do it I eyeball the flour, sugar, and salt I’m mixing in with the fruit. A smaller cut should help with baking time though. Oh, if nothing else, since I realize this isn’t particularly helpful, is consider throwing in some craisins. I love the flavor combination of apples and cranberry but tastes very.
Now if you want some advice on some low and slow homemade apple butter I can be more helpful. It’s just a recipe online but I can vouch for it personally.
Two changes I made was I only used about 1 1/2 to 2 cups of sugar, and I changed the spice measurements to the heaping side of things. It’d think it’d take some pretty tart apples to really call for the full 4 cups. Of course I ran down to a u-pick orchard and got some Braeburns that I made it with, some tart Granny Smith’s may have made me putting in more sugar. I could see something like a Red Delicious only needing a token amount of sugar. Thing is it’s pretty easy to sweeten things up at the end (or even throw in a bit more spices).
The one downside for canning I can see to it is it takes so long, but I just got everything ready on Saturday night and it was ready for me on Sunday morning. The house smelled delightful.
Yesterday, I bought a peck of Pink Lady apples, 1/2 peck of Braeburns, and 1/2 peck of Johnathans.
I just started a big batch of apple butter in the crockpot. It’s the first of two batches. I’ll can it tomorrow. Then, I’ll start the second batch, and can it the next day.
The remainder of apples (Those not used for apple butter) will go into a batch of apple pie filling, which I’ll cook up, and then freeze. I’m going to have a busy weekend, but damn, the house is going to smell GOOD.
For the pumpkin gratin, you could hack the pumpkin into wedges, brush with oil and roast in a medium oven until it starts to caramelise - that should bring some of the flavour out. Also, you could substitute butternut squash or one of the many varieties of winter squash - they behave like pumpkin in most recipes, but have a range of different flavours.
And yes - use a stronger cheese - maybe a mature gruyere.
If you want to take the recipe off-piste a bit, you could fire-roast a red pepper*and add to the pumpkin before making the puree. I’m pretty sure that would work nicely.
Finally. Bacon - little crispy lardons can’t possibly spoil this dish - use them as a garnish.
*(Stick it on a big fork and burn it all over with a blowtorch or over a gas hob. When it’s uniformly black, stick it in a plastic bag. Ten minutes later, remove it and the blackened skin will just peel away - but the remnants and juices of the blackened skin will add a lovely smoky flavour).
Pumpkin spice butter! I don’t have a set recipe and it’s not like the puree apple butter. It’s more like flavored butter. A stick of salted butter, a cup of pumpkin puree, pumpkin pie spice and sucralose (or sugar if you prefer, or I bet brown sugar would be even better) to taste. It’s like pumpkin pie on your toast! It’s good on plain oatmeal too.
OMG. That sounds SO good! Is that really all there is to it? If so, I’m going to make some for my husband. He LOVES pumpkin pie, and I just know he’ll love this, too.
I was all set to post my favorite pumpkin recipe for you, but when I went and did a search, I see that I got it from Hazle Weatherfield who got it from twickster…so you probably already know this one.
3 lbs. apples (8 medium), peeled, cored, cut in chunks
1 6-oz bag dried raisins
1 tbs. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
Mix that up. Top with the topping as above.
Make at 350 for about 45 hours. (Apples are not completely mushy, which is the way I prefer it. If you want them all the way soft, I’d cook for an hour.)
Crock pot is full and warming at this minute! I followed the recipe proportions, but did use heaping portions of the spices. Used Granny Smiths because they were on sale and I was interested in using a more tart apple anyway.
One thing I am going to change after reading the comments on this recipe and browsing others, is I will crack the lid open about half-way through, so that it comes out nice and thick.
I made a really interesting recipe for pumpkin soup once. It was (I think) an Indian recipe and you added a spoonful of peanut butter to it. It doesn’t sound like it would be good but it really was.
Huh. I googled around a bit but cannot find a similar recipe. All I’m finding are ones that have 1/4 to an entire cup (!!!) of peanut butter. Most of them have a half stick of butter in them and I know I wouldn’t have made a soup that fatty.
The great Seasonal Food for me is grapes. My grandmother (and later, my father) used to have an arbor of Concord grapes, and one of the compensations for school starting in the fall was the availability of grapes. When I went to grad school in upstate New York, I learned about Grape Pie. This had to be hand-made at home or by one of a relatively few bakeries, because it’s so labor-intensive. Every year, even after I left New York, I would buy or finagle enough grapes for such a pie.
I’ve wanted to make a pie out of some other kind of Labrusca grape besides Concord for several years. But it’s hard enough to find Concord grapes in supermarkets or farm stands. Virtually nobody sells Cattawba, Niagara, Delaware, or Diamond grapes. The flavors and colors are all different.
This year I contacted a winery that grew smallsamples of other grapes. Unfortunately, their Niagara stock was pruned too far back, and their Delaware fell prey to rain and insects. But they had a small spread of Alden grapes. I’d never heard of these before, and bought a shopping bag full. They were a bit harder to peel than Concord grapes, but I was able to make a pie of of them, tasting to get the sweetness right and guessing about the quantities of other ingredients.
It turned out great, except for the color – Alden grapes are green-red, and with the white thickening the pie came out the color of Gross. But if you shut your eyes, it tastes wonderful
Thought I would update on my success. First of all, today it was about 60 and rained in the morning, so it smelled like cool rain and leaves. In other words, a perfect day for cooking fall food!
Second the reduction of sugar. Next batch, I will use a sweet apple and cut down the sugar by at least half. Didn’t wake up to take the lid off, but left it off for a good two hours this morning. Finished up by using a stick mixer to make it nice and smooth.
And THEN! Making the butter was only half of the fun…half of the reason to have it was to make apple butter pumpkin pie, which I have had the recipe for for over a year and hadn’t tried. Fantastic! My only recommendation is to pre-bake the crust contrary to the directions, and I did not sweeten my whipped cream.
