My husband, John, is a HUGE fan of apple desserts and once the calendar indicates that summer is over, he basically hounds me to make him as many apple desserts as he can possible handle. He has been working from home for the entire month of September, so I have taken to making a dessert each week to satisfy his sweet tooth.
I made an apple cake, using fresh apples, and goodness knows it was so darn good that I dug in and totally forgot to snap a picture! I found the recipe in one of the church cookbooks that I collect. I love church cookbooks, they seem to have the best recipes, ones that you love making for your family, time and time again. This recipe called for diced apples, raisins, and nuts along with cinnamon and the usual cake ingredients of flour, sugar, salt, etc. I am not a huge fan of cake with icing, and this cake certainly did not need it. Moist, slightly sweet, and filled with apples. It was the perfect fall dessert!
The following week, I made an apple cider cake, this time I got a picture, yeah ME!
I used this recipe to make the cake, but I was intrigued by the final steps of this recipe. It called for brushing the cake with a warm syrup of sugar and apple cider, then topping it with cinnamon and sugar. IT WAS DELICIOUS! We are big fans of pound cake it this house and an apple flavored pound cake in fall….can’t ask for anything better!
One of my coworkers asked me to make him a peach cobbler, he said he hasn’t had a good one since his Mom passed. I was a bit nervous, I mean seriously, how does one live up to a memory like that? Anyway I used the recipe from my grandmother’s Betty Crocker Cookbook. It was published in 1950 and I use the book with surprising frequency. Anyway, I took it to work, he LOVED it, called me crying because it was exactly like his mother’s. I cried with him and was so happy to give him a taste of his childhood.
Because we are not fans of cobbler, and since I had peaches left over after making jam and cobbler, I made a batch of peach crisp for John and I. No recipe needed, just peel and slice peaches, toss them with a bit of cinnamon and sugar. Top with a mixture of oats, butter, brown sugar, and nuts. Bake for 35 minutes. The house smelled amazing!
My final autumn dessert of the past few weeks…. a maple walnut cake. OH MY GOD…it was delicious, and I am not one for icing, but goodness, this cake may have just changed my mind. I made this maple icing. After reading the reviews on the icing recipe, I did add some maple sugar to boost the maple flavor of the icing and it was perfect!
Pickled Sweet 