Slow Cooker Applesauce

I wish I could call this a "recipe" with a straight face. The fact is it is SO easy to make your own applesauce. Shelby practically begs me to make it. She could eat the whole batch in 3 days. 

Between using the apple skins and using a potato ricer to mash, you get a nice chunky applesauce. It's a family favorite, and guess what?? No extra sugar.

Slow Cooker Applesauce

12 large apples


1. Section the apples discarding the cores.
2. Dump apples into slow cooker.
3. Cook on low for 8 hours.
4. Sprinkle with cinnamon, and mash apples with a potato ricer.


See? Nothing to it.

Pumpkin Granola

I'm not going to lie: I love all things pumpkin. Pie? Pancakes? Lattes? Love. Love. Love. Pinterest trends light up with pumpkin recipes (it's even an inside joke on The Pinterest). On a parallel topic, I love granola, too. In bar form and by the handful. And, the intersection of these two passions (is that too strong a word?) is Pumpkin Granola.

I have tried several granola recipes, but never been satisfied. They've never had the big, yummy clumps or enough flavor. But, I submit to you a new family favorite: Pumpkin Granola! Maple syrup meets big, classic pumpkin pie spices. I amped up the spices from the source recipe - because you can never have too much pumpkin spice (in my opinion). I even have a new canister on the counter dedicated to Pumpkin Granola that demands to be refilled on a weekly basis.

Pumpkin Granola

adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod

Ingredients
5 cups rolled oats
1 tablespoon cinnamon
2 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon cardamom
1 teaspoon nutmeg
¾ tsp. salt
¾ cup brown sugar
½ cup pumpkin puree
¼ cup applesauce
¼ cup maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup dried cranberries (or cubed candied ginger if you're feeling especially pumpkin-y)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 325° F.  Grease a half sheet pan (or line with a silicone baking sheet) and set aside.

2. In a large bowl, combine oats, spices, and salt. Mix well.

3. In a medium bowl, whisk together brown sugar, pumpkin puree, applesauce, maple syrup and vanilla extract. Whisk until smooth. Pour wet ingredients into oat mixture and stir until the oats are evenly coated. They will be moist. Evenly spread the mixture onto the prepared baking sheet.

4. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove pan from the oven and stir ever so gently (the less the disturbance, the bigger the clumps!). Bake for an additional 15-20 minutes or until the granola is golden and crisp. Remove from the oven and stir in dried cranberries. Let cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

Soft Sourdough Pretzels

I've been excited to use my new sourdough starter. You have to "feed" the starter every week and discard a cup's worth of the stuff to keep the starter going. So sad to throw it away! When I saw this recipe on the King Arthur Flour website calling for a cup of that discarded starter, I was excited! Boy, do I love soft pretzels. They are my favorite treat at a ballgame - with some neon orange plastic cheese to dip them in, of course.

According to the other bakers, the recipe as published on the website makes more of a pretzel bread/roll, rather than the traditional twisted soft pretzel. I took their advice to boil the pretzel before cooking it in a super-hot oven. That step gave the pretzel a crisp outside while keeping the inside soft and tender. Heaven! I didn't have any pretzel salt, but still was blown away by the results! These pretzels will be baked frequently in my house. So, I may try to find some of those giant granules of salt to keep on hand!

Sourdough Pretzel
from King Arthur Flour

Pretzel Dough
3/4 c lukewarm water
1 c unfed sourdough starter, straight from the refrigerator
3 c flour
3T almond milk
1 T sugar
1 T vegetable oil1
1/2 t salt
2 tsp instant yeast
2/3 c baking soda
1 egg, beaten for egg wash

Topping
Pretzel salt
2 T melted butter, optional



1. Mix the dough ingredients into a smooth dough. It will be sticky.
2. Cover the dough and let it rest for 45 minutes.
3. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add baking soda.
4. Turn the dough out onto a lightly greased work surface, fold it over a few times to gently deflate it, then divide it into 12 pieces (24 pieces for pretzel "knots").
5. Roll each piece of dough into an 18" rope. Shape each rope into a pretzel.
6. In batches, drop pretzels into the boiling water for 30 seconds. Place boiled pretzels on a greased cookie sheet.
7. Brush tops of pretzels with egg wash, and bake for 14 minutes (10-12 in convection oven), until they're a light golden brown.
8. Remove the pretzels from the oven, and brush with melted butter, if desired.