Apple Skillet Breakfast Cake and Zingy De-Tox Apple Kale Berry Smoothie

Malus Domesticus?.......

 

How bout them apples?.....

Dangerously Delicious and Diverse and, Divine? :)

Last week, my good friend Livvy showed up at my house in the middle of the week with a huge bag full of apples.  Muchos, muchos manzanas...from her neighbor's tree.  Just like I cannot go to sleep at night without brushing my teeth, I absolutely cannot let a gallon of these classic fresh, crisp Autumn fruits, grown down the street, go to waste.  I have to, almost like its an emergency, before they go rotten, turn them into something tasty and fulfilling and healthy.  So my friends, this week's theme: the ancient, famous, diverse, origin of evil and the original preventative medicine, our friend, Malus domestica.  Malus means evil, so, in keeping in line with our Halloween foodie theme, I thought this was a perfect, frightfully delicious centerpiece for dishes to serve up this cooky and spooky last week of my favorite month of the year.  

Of course, they are the perfect snack.  Why?

They have both a low glycemic index (GI) and low glycemic (load), which makes them perfect for satisfying your sweet tooth without sending your blood sugar skyrocketing.  If I eat an apple at 4:00ish at work, I will have much more energy to finish the day strong and still go for a run and cook dinner and clean up and work on my blog....if I have an apple instead of a candy bar for my late-afternoon snack!

However, I must admit, they are SO MUCH MORE FUN to use in delectible dishes rather than just eating alone.

My very cool cousins from Portland were visiting Ashland this weekend.  We had a grand time doing the Southern Oregon thang, hiking, running, drinking good beer, walking in Lithia Park, seeing a play at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.   They brought us doughnuts from Voodoo Doughnut, um, wow. 

Mike and I just stood there staring at the magical contents of this pink box for about 5 minutes.  Portland.  Is. Awesome.   

 So, I felt indebted to take my cousins to a funky, super tasty place for brunch since one, brunch is such a cool Portlandia thing to do, and two, I wanted to show them that we, too, have funky, super tasty places to eat lots of sugar and dough and coffee on a lazy Sunday.  Well, we may have slept in a little too late Sunday morning to even stand a chance at getting a table anywhere for brunch before getting to our play at 1:30, so, I looked at my bag of apples, scratched my head, and thought, there are SO many things I can do with these green and red jewels of fall, think think think.....

This is what I came up with for brunch at Bodega Stadnisky.  I also made Kale Blueberry Apple Ginger Lemon Coconut Milk smoothie to accompany and give us a little zesty pick-me-up for the fun day ahead.  The recipe is really complicated:

Ingredients:                                                                                      
4 leafs of Dinosaur Kale, rinsed
one bag of frozen organic blueberries
one big apple, cored (do not peel!)
1 " piece of peeled fresh ginger
juice of one lemon
1/2 cup of light coconut milk
a few ice cubes

Directions: 
put all ingredients in powerful blender or Vitamix
blend until smooth.
Imbibe the cool, zesty, green, refreshing antioxidants and phytochemicals until your heart's and immune system's content!

Then, I made something which my manager at Starbucks back in the day (my first job!) would have called "quality calories" being facetious in every way possible:)  When a customer, usually ordering a skim latte with sugar free vanilla, would look longingly at the pastry case, internal diet devil and angel voices battling it out,  my manager would quietly but firmly whisper, "quality calories, my friend, those scones and muffins are good for your soul, go ahead, you know you deserve one....".

So, my Apple Skillet Breakfast cake does have some sugar in it.  BUT, I used the minimal amount of sugar I felt possible to still make it sweet enough to satisfy but also used healthy ingredients like hazelnut flour and coconut oil to offset some of the "quality calories" of the sugar.  And, it has a lot of apples, so they are healthy!   Why? Apples have, ahem:

Vitamin C                                                     

My dad is a pediatrician.  When I was a little girl, I was terrified once when my mom brought home a bushel of apples.  I thought she wanted to keep my doctor daddy out of the house....

B Complex Vitamins

Polyphenolic Compounds

Dietary Fiber

Calcium, Potassium, and Phosphorous

So, my friends, I give you Apple Skillet Breakfast Cake

This recipe is Gluten Free.  Can be made Vegan by substituting 1 cup of egg replacer for the 4 eggs.

Ingredients:

Batter:

1/4 cup of Hazelnut or Almond Meal Flour

1/4 cup of Quinoa or Oat Flour

1/2 tsp of baking powder

1/2 tablespoon of granulated sugar

1/8 tsp of salt

1/4 tsp of ground nutmeg

4 eggs, beaten

1 cup of almond milk or skim milk

2 tablespoons of coconut oil, melted

1 tsp real vanilla extract

Apple Mixture:

coconut oil enough to coat skillet

1/4 cup of granulated sugar

1 tsp of cinnamon

1/2 tsp of ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp of ground ginger

2 cups of thinly sliced apples (any firm, tart apples will do, avoid soft mealy ones like Macintosh)

topping:

confectioner's sugar or maple syrup

Directions: 

1.  Combine flours, baking powder, 1/2 tablespoon of sugar, salt, and 1/4 tsp of nutmeg in a bowl, stirring with a fork or whisk to mix well.

2. Combine eggs, milk, coconut oil, and vanilla in a bowl or bowl of Kitchen Aid mixer, whisk to mix well.

3.  Add flour mixture to egg mixture, stir well or whisk with paddle attachment of Kitchen Aid.

4. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  

5. Coat bottom AND sides of heavy bottomed OVENPROOF skillet (I use my 10" cast iron Dutch Oven) with coconut oil or cooking spray.

6. Combine 1/8 cup of granulated sugar, cinnamon, and 1/2 tsp of nutmeg; scatter evenly over bottom and sides of pan

7. Arrange apples in an even, whirl-like pattern in two layers in pan.

8. Sprinkle apple with remaining 1/8 cup of sugar.

9. Cook over medium heat for 5 minutes, or until it bubbles.

10. Slooooowly, evenly, pour batter over apple mixture.

11. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.  Reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees F and bake an additional 15-18 minutes UNTIL the CENTER is SET (not jiggly, nice and firm but not brown and burnt!). 

12. Remove from oven, place on heat proof surface or cooling rack, and carefully loosen pancake with a wide, flexible spatula.  Gently slide the cake onto a serving plate.  Sprinkle confectioners sugar or maple syrup over top.  

Cut into desired sized pie pieces and serve right away.  Goes well with piping hot coffee on a crisp, late October morning before setting out on a jog in the woods!

Pilot Rock, one of our local favorite hikes off the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT)

Overlooking Northern California from the PCT.

A view off the end of a little spur trail overlooking the Mount Ashland Watershed from a run my cousin Katie and I did that Sunday after eating the Apple Pancakes and drinking lots of coffee!