autumn Archives - Page 6 of 6 - The White Ramekins

Fall can not be celebrated without apples, pomegranates, pears and pumpkins. Delicate, tart and juicy cherries, plums, apricots and nectarines of summers have long been left behind with a promise to come back next year. More sturdy and substantial fruits of fall rule the roost now.

I have baked with pears and pomegranates this season and have been wanting to bake with apples soon. How could I let autumn just pass by, without even baking an apple cake. Last year, I baked an egg less apple yogurt cake. But this year, I had this beautiful recipe of Jewish apple cake from Smitten Kitchen Cookbook, playing on my mind.

Probably, this would have been my first recipe of fall season, but because of Hindu fasting days, I just had to stay away from eggs {and I baked this gorgeous egg free pomegranate jewel cake}. Deb’s recipes have not just always been successful, but a complete crowd pleasing too. Never ever had any disaster from her book.

It’s a cake which is awesomely loaded with chunks of cinnamon coated apples, which make it unbelievably moist. But, it takes some patience in return too, in terms of prepping and baking time. Bake this cake, only when you have ample leisure time, possibly on a Sunday afternoon.

Give it all your love and it will pay back in amazingly good taste and texture. And, It tastes better the next day…only if you could resist to let it stay for that long.

In my case, I just sneaked a big piece into my fridge, before taking it to my family and friends, and enjoyed it later all alone, when I returned back home {yeah…I could go down to that level for such heavenly piece of cake}. Try it to believe it!

Ingredients

6 red apples
1 tbsp cinnamon
400 gm plus 5 tbsp sugar
200 gm whole wheat flour
145 gm plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup orange juice
2 1/2 tsp vanilla
4 eggs

Directions

Preheat oven to 175 degrees C. Grease a tube pan or a nine inch spring form pan. Peel, core and chop apples into chunks. Toss with cinnamon and sugar and set aside.
Stir together both the flours, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl.
In a separate bowl, whisk together oil, orange juice, sugar and vanilla.
Mix wet ingredients into the dry ones, then add eggs, one at a time. Scrape down the bowl to ensure all ingredients are incorporated.
Pour half of batter into prepared pan. Spread half of apples over it. Pour the remaining batter over the apples and arrange the remaining apples on top.
Bake for about 1 1/2 hours, or until a tester comes out clean. Cool completely before running knife between cake and pan, and flipping onto a serving platter.

I love going to brunches and more than brunches, I love having breakfast with similar if not bigger spread. Especially because I am an early morning riser, irrespective of a weekday or a weekend. Getting up early in the morning and having a heavy breakfast after a refreshing morning walk, is something which keeps me energized throughout the day.

My weekends are more refreshing than my weekdays {i know, it’s with most of us}, and demand a lot more of my energies put into trying out new recipes in my kitchen and photo shooting them. And whatever time remains out of that, I spend that with my family and friends.

Breakfast on a busy weekday would normally be fruits, granola and milk…a super quick one. No time to sit back, relax and enjoy anything better. But on weekends, I try to have something expansive, and wouldn’t even mind turning on my oven. I would sometime bake wholemeal muffins or make pancakes. And if I am in mood of having something tangy or spicy, I would turn to some Indian breakfast recipes like Poha (made of beaten rice), or Idli Sambhar (steamed rice cakes with lentil and onion soup)

Visiting my parents on weekend calls for a different genre of breakfast recipes altogether, which would include normally, Aloo Pyaaz Paratha (potao and onion stuffed breads) with homemade white butter or Aloo Poori (fried unleavened bread with spicy potato curry). That sounds laden with carbs and fats, but that’s the way of my mother bestowing her love onto her once-in-a-month-visiting son. And I wouldn’t mind that too even.

So all in all, I love my breakfast. Few days back, I came across this wonderful recipe of baked oatmeal from Heidi Swanson of the famous 101Cookbooks.com. It’s a layered fruit and milk-soaked oats and nuts one bowl breakfast recipe, which is fast to whip up and is really wholesome too.

And I would say, it is relatively healthy too, with all the good fats, natural sugar, proteins, minerals and with complex carbohydrates. And the best part is, you could add any seasonal fruits you like in this. It’s the pear season here, all we get in name of fruits these days, are pear and apple. So pear were my obvious choice for this, as I had some in my fridge. And I enjoyed this thoroughly, reading newspaper and listening to my favorite music, with cool breeze flowing in from balcony on a relaxed Saturday morning. Could life be any better than this?

Ingredients

2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup walnuts
1/2 cup hazelnuts
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp fine-grain salt
2 cups milk
1/3 cup maple syrup
1 large egg
3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 ripe but firm pears, chopped

Directions

Preheat oven to 190 degree C. Butter the inside of 9 inch pie dish.
In a bowl, combine the oats, walnuts, hazelnuts, baking powder, cinnamon, salt.
In another bowl, whisk the maple syrup, milk, egg, half of the butter and vanilla.
Spread the chopped pear in a layer across the bottom of buttered pie dish.
Sprinkle the oats mixture over top of pear evenly. Drizzle with milk and egg mixture evenly over the oats layer.
Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until the top is brown and oats are set. Let cool for few minutes. Drizzle with remaining melted butter and serve.

Whole Wheat Fall Apple Cake

Pear Baked Oatmeal