Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy Apple Bundt #BundtBakers

Light yet full of fruit, this easy peasy lemon squeezy apple Bundt reminds me that bright summer sunshine always fades into sweet cooler autumn. Eventually.


Go ahead, laugh with me. Or at me. I deserve it. I made this cake batter twice in two days because the first time, I completely forgot to add the apples in at the end. Yes, they were all peeled and sliced and chopped and just waiting, ready, but I was so taken by the lovely golden yellow batter that I spooned it right in my prepared baking pan – this Duet Bundt* from Nordic Ware – and popped it in the oven. The timer was 10 minutes down before I realized that the apples and lemon juice were still just sitting there. And I temporarily lost my will to live.

So here’s what I can tell you: If you want a simple vanilla lemon cake that doesn’t need a machine to mix and that would bake up beautifully in a Duet pan, just skip the apple steps.

Today, however, there need to be apples. Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm is hosting Bundt Bakers this month and she chose apples as our theme. How could I have forgotten to add the one ingredient I have to use? Yeah, I don’t know either.

Once the apples are added, the batter of this delicious easy peasy lemon squeezy apple Bundt is fluffy from the interaction of the baking soda, sour cream and lemon juice so spoon it carefully into your baking pan. We don’t want to lose any of the air inside.

Ingredients for 5- or 6-cup Bundt
1 1/2 cups or 190g flour, plus more for pan
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1-2 apples, depending on size about 170g each (I ended up using 1 1/2 apples)
1/4 cup or 60ml lemon juice
zest 1 lemon
1/3 cup or 75g butter, melted and cooled, plus more for pan
3/4 cup or 150g caster sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup or 115g full fat sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Optional: confectioner’s sugar for decoration

Method
Preheat the oven to 325°F or 163°C. Prepare your 5 or 6 cup Bundt pan by greasing it with butter and coating that with flour.

Zest your lemon and then squeeze the juice into a small mixing bowl, being careful to remove all of the seeds.

Cut the apples in half, core and peel them. Slice them as thinly as you can, then give the whole pile of slices a couple of rough chops. The point here is that we don’t mind some larger pieces, but they should all be thin so they cook faster.  Make sense?

Put the cut apples into the lemon juice bowl and stir well. The acid in the lemon juice will help stop the apples from turning brown as you get on with the rest of the recipe.

Measure your flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a large mixing bowl. Add in the butter, eggs, sour cream, lemon zest and vanilla.

Beat well with a whisk, until the batter is smooth and creamy. Resist the urge to eat it. (It’s so good!)

Fold in the chopped apples along with the lemon juice.

Spoon the batter into your prepared pan.

Bake for 35-40 minutes in the preheated oven. Check it occasionally and if the top begins to brown too quickly, you can cover it with some foil.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about 15 minutes before attempting to remove the cakes from the pan.

Once completely cool, you can add a light dusting of confectioner’s sugar, if desired.

Enjoy!

Do you love to bake with apples? You are sure to add to your list of favorites when you see what my fellow Bundt Bakers have created this month!

• Apple & Peanut Butter Bundt Cake by Sew You Think You Can Cook
• Apple Almond Coffee Cake with Honey Glaze by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Apple and Toasted Pecan Bundt Cake with Rum Syrup by Patty's Cake
• Apple Crumble Bundt by Jane's Adventure in Dinner
• Apple French Cruller Bundt Cake by All That's Left Are The Crumbs
• Apple Honey Blossom Bundt by Living the Gourmet
• Apple Sharlotka Bundt Cake by Spiceroots
• Apple Spice Bundt with Salted Caramel Sauce by kidsandchic
• Apple Streusel Bundt Cake by The Freshman Cook
• Apple~Cream Cheese Bundt Cake by The Queen of Scones
• Chocolate Chip Apple Cake by Making Miracles
• Cinnamon Apple Streusel Cake by Tea and Scones
• Cinnamon Pecan Applesauce Bundt Cake by Magnolia Days
• Clotted Cream & Apple Spice Bundt by Baking in Pyjamas
• Double Caramel Apple Bundt by The Crumby Cupcake
• Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy Apple Bundt by Food Lust People Love
• Jewish Apple Cake by I love Bundt Cakes
• Jewish Praline Pecan Apple Cake by Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice
• Lighter Jewish Apple Cake by Cookaholic Wife

BundtBakers is a group of Bundt loving bakers who get together once a month to bake Bundts with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on the BundtBakers home page.

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Pecan Sandies #CreativeCookieExchange

Buttery and rich with a delicious crunch of toasted pecans, these pecan sandies almost melt in your mouth as they leave a trail of sandy crumbs down your chin.

I have a notebook that I keep nearby at all times where I keep track of my upcoming obligations for different blogger group posts. I try very hard to write all the themes in it next to the publish date. Occasionally, if the theme is too long, I’ll shorten it so it fits but so I can still remember the whole thing. Or so I thought. This month’s whole theme for Creative Cookie Exchange is Cookies to Celebrate the End of Summer Vacation. That does not fit in my editorial calendar notebook. So I wrote, End of Summer.

End of summer, end of summer, I thought weeks later as I checked the notebook, the deadline looming. I’m such a Beach Boys fan that Endless Summer naturally popped into my mind. Hmmmm, interesting. And what goes with the Beach Boys but beaches? Now you see how I ended up making pecan sandies, right?

Pecan sandies are classic buttery cookies that are sometimes coated in or sprinkled with powdered sugar after they are baked. As far as I’m concerned, they don’t need the extra sugar at all and, for my purposes this month, the snow white shower would take away from their sandy color.

Going the other direction, I chose to sprinkle mine with the leftover crumbs of the toasted pecans for added color. But you do you, honey boo-boo.

Ingredients
2 cups or 250g all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup or 170g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup or 100g granulated sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons water
1 1/4 cups chopped pecans (about 5 ozs or 142g)
Optional: powdered sugar to decorate

Method
Toast your pecan pieces in a dry skillet on the stovetop. Stir or toss often so they don’t scorch but become a lovely toasted color all over. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

Preheat your oven to 325°F or 163°C and line two cookie sheets with parchment or silicone baking liners.

In a medium bowl, whisk together your flour, salt and baking soda.

Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl with electric beaters or your stand mixer until they are a pale yellow and fluffy – about three minutes. Scrape down the sides of your bowl with a rubber spatula.

Beat in the egg, vanilla and water until fully incorporated. Do not be alarmed when these look curdled. Adding the flour always takes care of that.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl again and continue beating, adding about a third of the flour at a time and beating until fully mixed and all the flour has been added.

Use a slotted spoon to transfer the cooled toasted pecan pieces into the mixing bowl, leaving behind the smaller crumbs of pecan.

Mix until the pecans are incorporated into the dough.

Use a tablespoon or cookie scoop to measure out the cookie dough into about 25-27 cookies. I separated them nicely in the first baking pan but discovered when they came out that they can be much closer together. They don't spread much.

Roll the dough into balls with your hands and then flatten them with the bottom of a glass.

Check the crumbs left behind in the pecan toasting pan to make sure that none of them are little pieces of pecan shell. This can happen in the shelling process with disastrous results when someone bites on shell.

Sprinkle the pecan crumbs on top of the cookies and press down again lightly to make them stick into the dough. This, as you can see, is pan two.

Bake each pan for about 10 minutes then rotate it to make sure the cookies bake evenly. Bake for an additional 10 minutes or until the pecan sandies are slightly brown around the edges. If you bake both pans at once, you might want to rotate them from top shelf to bottom shelf as well as front to back.

Remove from the oven and allow the cookies to cool.

Enjoy!

How do you celebrate the end of summer? Might I suggest baking some cookies?

• Apple Shortbread Cookies with Apple Cider Mascarpone Frosting by A Shaggy Dough Story
• Apricot Pochettes by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Blackberry and Cream Monte Carlos by All That's Left Are The Crumbs
• Black Forest Cookies by Spiceroots
• Blueberry Cookies by The Spiced Life
• Kiwi Thumbprints by Flours and Frostings
• Lemon Basil Cookies with Mint by Hezzi-D's Books and Cooks
• Lemon Meltaways by Oven Delights
• Lemon Sour Cream Cookies by Magnolia Days
• Orange Creamsicle Cookies by 2 Cookin Mamas
• Peach Pie Cookies by Live. Bake. Love.
• Pecan Sandies by Food Lust People Love
• S'mores Blondies by A Baker's House
• Strawberry & Cream Cookies by Baking in Pyjamas

Creative Cookie Exchange is hosted by Laura of The Spiced Life. We get together once a month to bake cookies with a common theme or ingredient so Creative Cookie Exchange is a great resource for cookie recipes. Be sure to check out our Pinterest Board and our monthly posts at The Spiced Life. We post the first Tuesday after the 15th of each month!

Pin Pecan Sandies!

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Pineapple Pink Lemonade Shaved Ice #FoodieExtravaganza

Pineapple pink lemonade shaved ice: Make some naturally pink lemonade with pineapple especially for shaved ice or popsicles. Shaved ice melting on your tongue and a cold, cold spoon against your cheek are one of the great joys of summer.

A few weeks ago I shared a nostalgic recipe for Sunday Supper, pink lemonade with crushed pineapple. It was something my grandmother liked to serve when we were visiting. I think it fancied up a meal to have a special drink.

While a cold glass of pink lemonade with pineapple is ideal on a hot summer day, it cannot beat the same made into shaved ice. Many years ago a friend gave our family a very simple shaved ice maker when she arrived for a holiday visit. It came with three little tubs that you could fill with the juice or the liquid of your choice, stack and freeze. At first I always had a couple in the freezer, at the ready. And then, as often happens, the novelty wore off – I think one or more international moves got in the way too – and the ice shaver was neglected.

After I made the natural pink pineapple lemonade, the old ice shaver was hunted down and exhumed and put back into use! For those who are interested, mine was made by Pampered Chef. They still sell them, if you can find a Pampered Chef rep in your area. An Amazon search reveals many ice shavers on the market.

Ingredients for one 2 quart or 1.89 liter pitcher
1/2 cup or 100g sugar
1 (15 oz or 425g)crushed pineapple in light syrup
1 1/2 cups or 355ml freshly squeezed lemon juice
3/4 cup or 177ml (or more to color to your liking) cranberry or pomegranate juice

Special equipment: Shaved ice maker

Note: If you can only find the crushed pineapple in heavy syrup, you might be able to skip making the simple syrup. The heavy pineapple syrup should sweeten the lemonade enough without additional sugar.

Method
Make simple syrup by dissolving the sugar in 1/2 cup or 120ml of hot water. Set aside to cool.

In your large pitcher, combine the crushed pineapple with its syrup and lemon juice. Add some ice and water to almost fill your pitcher. Remember that you need room for the cranberry or pomegranate juice and some simple syrup. Stir well.

Add the red juice and taste the lemonade.

Add enough of the simple syrup till it’s sweet enough for your liking. (See note above if using crushed pineapple in heavy syrup.)

To make the shaved ice, give the lemonade a vigorous stir and pour it into the little vessels that come with the shaved ice maker. Cover with the provided lids and pop them in the freezer.

Set a timer for 30 minutes and 1 hour. Each time your timer rings, give the little lemonade containers a shake to redistribute the crushed pineapple as the lemonade begins to set. Depending on the efficacy of your freezer, you might have to give it a third shake. Then freeze till solid.

To remove the frozen lemonade from the little plastic bowl, run it briefly under warm water.

Put a bowl under the ice shaver and put the lemonade into the top. Fix the handle by squeezing the spring closed and screw the top on to the bottom.

Turn the handle to shave the ice into the bowl. Easy peasy; it takes mere seconds. That blade inside is sharp so do be careful not to leave the ice shaver around where children can reach it. And store it up high, some place safe.

Each cylinder of lemonade makes two bowls like you see pictured. When you can't shave any more, remove the handle and scoop out the small sliver of remaining pineapple lemonade.

The pineapple adds lovely flavor and texture and the lemonade is so refreshing. Don't forget to hold the cold, cold spoon to your cheek or fevered brow occasionally as you eat. :)

Enjoy!

Summertime is the best time for lemonade! In fact, National Lemonade Day is celebrated each year on August 20th.  My Foodie Extravaganza group is bring you our recipes a little early so you can plan ahead! Many thanks to Lauren of Sew You Think You Can Cook for hosting this month.

Check out all the lovely lemonades and lemonade-inspired recipes you have to choose from:

• Dairy-Free Frosted Lemonade by Cookaholic Wife
• Frosty Raw Strawberry Lemonade by Fearlessly Creative Mammas
• Honey Mint Lemonade by Sew You Think You Can Cook
• Lemony White Sangria by Hardly A Goddess
• Papaya Lemonade (or cocktail!) by Caroline's Cooking
• Passion Tea Lemonade by Making Miracles
• Peachy Lemonade by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Pineapple Pink Lemonade Shaved Ice by Food Lust People Love
• Shikanji (Indian Lemonade) by Tara's Multicultural Table
• Sparkling Apple and Watermelon Lemonade Spritzers by Sneha's Recipe
• Sparkling Blue Basil Lemonade by Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Sparkling Milk Lemonade by Our Good Life

Foodie Extravaganza celebrates obscure food holidays or shares recipes with the same ingredient or theme every month.

Posting day is always the first Wednesday of each month. If you are a blogger and would like to join our group and blog along with us, come join our Facebook group Foodie Extravaganza. We would love to have you!

If you're a reader looking for delicious recipes, check out our Foodie Extravaganza Pinterest Board! Looking for our previous parties? Check them out here.

Pin Pineapple Pink Lemonade Shaved Ice!

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Yorkshire Parkin Mini Bundt #BundtBakers

Yorkshire parkin is a rich gingerbread made with treacle and golden syrup. It's a traditional baked treat that might well have been enjoyed by the characters in the beloved children's book, The Secret Garden.

This month my Bundt Bakers group was challenged by our host, Sue of Palatable Pastime, to create a Bundt with the theme Secret Garden. I'm not sure if it's what Sue intended but my mind immediately went to one of my all-time favorite books, The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It's a book I have read over and over through the years. If you haven't read it, I recommend that you do. The Kindle edition is free on Amazon right now.

It's the story of an expat kid who loses her whole family to an epidemic and must return alone to England from the only home she's ever known in India. Her supposed home country is foreign to her as are the ways of the local people. After finding the secret garden to nurture in her mysterious uncle's estate, Mary grows from a sour-faced, spoiled and finicky child into one with pink cheeks and a wholesome appetite under the care of a kind Yorkshire maid and her down-to-earth brother, Dicken.

In 1999, Amy Colter published The Secret Garden Cookbook, with recipes inspired by Frances Hodgson Burnett’s classic book. I must confess that I do not own that book but as I was reading its reviews, parkin was mentioned several times as a particularly traditional Yorkshire treat contained therein. I consulted The Google and found this recipe on BBC Good Food, which I adapted to fit my smaller Bundt pan.

I like to think that Mary took parkin just like this from the big house out to share with Dicken and the wee Robin Red Breast who first showed her where the secret garden was hidden.

Ingredients
1 medium egg
2 tablespoons milk
100g butter, plus extra for greasing the baking pan
1/3 cup or 80ml golden syrup
1/4 cup or 50g soft brown sugar
2 tablespoons treacle (or molasses)
1 cup or 125g flour, plus extra for pan
Slightly rounded 1/2 cup or 50g oatmeal
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Optional: powdered sugar to serve

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and liberally butter and flour your 2 1/2 to 3-cup mini Bundt pan. (Follow the original recipe for a larger pan. This just happened to be the only pan I own where I am staying right now. Traditionally parkin is baked in a square pan and cut into squares to serve.)

Beat the egg and milk together in a small mixing bowl. Set aside. Mix the flour, oatmeal, ginger, baking soda, baking powder and salt together.

In a small saucepan, gently warm the butter, brown sugar, golden syrup and treacle until the butter is just melted. Remove from the heat and continue to stir until the brown sugar has dissolved.

Add the dry ingredients to the warm butter mixture, followed by the egg and milk. Stir until well combined.

Pour the batter into your prepared Bundt pan.

Bake in the preheated oven about 30-35 minutes or until a wooden skewer comes out clean and the top is a bit crusty.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about 10 minutes before turning the parkin out on a wire rack to cool.

The BBC recipe says to wrap it up tightly in parchment paper and foil and to keep it for a few days before eating, as it gets softer and stickier the longer you keep it. I don’t know about that (time will tell!) but I can assure you that even straight out of the pan, it goes quite excellently with a strong cup of Yorkshire Tea, the brand my younger daughter happens to favor.

Enjoy!

Check out all the other Secret Garden recipes the Bundt Bakers are sharing today!

• Almond Lavender Bundt by The Queen of Scones
• Carrot Bundt Cake with Chamomile Orange Icing by Patty's Cake
• Chocolate and Mint Cake by Baking Yummies
• Ginger & Lemon Crackle Courgette Bundt Cake by Baking in Pyjamas
• Elderflower and Lemon Bundt by Jane's Adventure in Dinner
• Lavender & Honey Bundt by Living the Gourmet
• Lavender & Lemon Bundt Cake by I Love Bundt Cakes
• Lavender Lemonade Bundt by All That's Left Are The Crumbs
• Lemon and Rosewater Cake by Palatable Pastime
• Lemon Balm Bundt Cake by Magnolia Days
• Lemon Zucchini Bundt with Sugared Pansies by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Mojito Bundt Cakes by Sew You Think You Can Cook
• Spiced Zucchini Bundt Cake by Making Miracles
• Sweet Chocolate Feel the Beet Cake by Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice
• Vanilla Rose Bundt with Edible Flowers by Our Good Life
• Yorkshire Parkin Mini Bundt by Food Lust People Love
• Zucchini, Cheddar and Chive Bundt by Cookaholic Wife

#BundtBakers is a group of Bundt loving bakers who get together once a month to bake Bundts with a common ingredient or theme.  Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on the BundtBakers home page.

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Staffordshire Yeomanry Pudding #FridayPieDay

Staffordshire Yeomanry Pudding is a classic British dessert. It’s essentially a pie with two flakey sweet crusts, top and bottom, baked with an almond custard filling. 

Join me down the rabbit hole, where one book leads to another book, leads to another book.

Five years ago today, I wrote my first post on this blog, created initially to give me a place to join my two loves, cooking and writing. Over the years, as readership grew, it also became a place to connect with the world at large and make friends both in and outside the blogging community. My interest in food, culture and the history of recipes was fueled by my travels and the many countries I’ve called home. Also, I’m a sucker for any memoir that includes food or cooking as a focus.

Last year I came across the memoir, Brian Turner – A Yorkshire Lad, my life with recipes at a used book sale. I had never heard of Turner, apparently a world famous chef with his own restaurant and a successful career on television, but that didn’t stop me from buying the book. His early years were the best part of the story. I love reading about how others grew up and the poor Yorkshire lad who went off to London with just £20 in his pocket did not disappoint.

In the reading of that book, I came across another that seemed worth owning. Farmhouse Kitchen is based on the independent television series of the same name, presented by Dorothy Sleightholme on Yorkshire Television, starting in the early '70s. I found Farmhouse Kitchen online in a used book store and had it mailed to an address in the United States, knowing I wouldn’t get it till I went home in May.

Now I’m back in Dubai again and am finally having a chance to read it. It’s short on descriptions but long on recipes, one after another after another, for classic – read: old-fashioned, down home – British fare. Many use ingredients that were possibly common at the time but harder to come by now, like wood pigeon and lambs’ hearts. On the other hand, a lot of the recipes can be made with store cupboard ingredients. The Staffordshire Yeomanry Pudding is one example.

I always keep ground almonds in my freezer because they are an excellent addition to many baked cakes or cookies. (Why the freezer? The cold keeps nuts from turning rancid in a warm kitchen.) The other ingredients, flour, eggs, butter, sugar, jam, everyone will have. But where did the recipe originate and why the unusual name? Mrs. Sleightholme offers no information whatsoever, nor does the contributor of the recipe, one Miss P. M. Cherry of Penkridge.

As an initially all-volunteer unit in the queen’s own army, Staffordshire Yeomanry has a long and illustrious history of defending the crown’s interests, dating back from 1794. The Wikipedia page is full of information about its roles over the years but not once does it mention the pudding that bears the same name.

Clearly more research was necessary which led me to this post on Book Cottages where I learned that the Staffordshire Yeomanry Pudding recipe was possibly first developed "during the height of the Boer War, when wives would bake for their returning husbands a luxurious welcome home spread, comprising of the best cakes and sweetmeats they could possibly afford."

But still no mention of why the pudding was named such. Curiouser and curiouser. I had to keep digging. I must confess that I’m still none the wiser, but deep into the rabbit hole of recipe research and book buying, I’ve just ordered Good Things in England: A Practical Cookery Book for Everyday Use first published in 1932, with 853 recipes, some dating back to the 14th century. Once it arrives, I’ll be sure to report back if any light is shed on the origins of Staffordshire Yeomanry Pudding. If you happen to know more about it, please leave me a comment.

Meanwhile, if you’ve followed me down the rabbit hole thus far, you deserve some sweet pie! If you've been reading my blog since the beginning five years ago, I owe you much more, but pie and a great big Thank You will have to do.

Ingredients
For the sweet shortcrust pastry:
1 3/4 cup or 220g plain flour
1/2 cup or 113g butter
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon cold water

For the filling:
 1/2 cup or 113g butter
1/2 cup or 100g sugar
1/4 cup or 28g ground almonds
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 egg yolks
1 egg white
2 tablespoons jam

Method
Add the flour and the cold butter, cut into pieces, into your food processor. Pulse several times, until the flour and butter are combined and look like big crumbs.

Add in the sugar and salt and pulse again.

 Add in the egg yolk and water.

Pulse again, scraping down the sides of the food processor in between pulses, until the dough just comes together.

Turn it out of the processor and wrap tightly with cling film. Pop the wrapped dough in the refrigerator to chill.

Start your oven preheating to 350°F or 180°C and make the filling.

In the bowl of your processor or with electric beaters, cream the butter and sugar together until they turn pale yellow.

Mix in the extract, salt and ground almonds. Add in the whole egg and one egg yolk and process until the mixture is well combined, scraping down the side of the processor occasionally.

Roll out 2/3 of the dough and fit it into your pie plate. Spoon in the jam and spread it around evenly on the bottom.

Pour the custard filling on top of the jam and smooth it out.

Roll the other piece of the dough out in a circle and top the filling with it. Push down around the edges to seal the two crusts together. Trim the crusts to end about one inch or 2 centimeters above the filling.

Fold the two crusts over together to seal the pie and form an edge and cut three slits in the top crust.

Bake in your preheated oven for about 40 minutes or until the crust is golden and the custard inside is set.

Cool on a wire rack for at least 20-25 minutes before cutting and serving.

Enjoy!


My friend and creator of Friday Pie Day, Heather, over at All Roads Lead to the Kitchen has made another classic dessert with a funny name, but from the United States, shoofly pie! Head on over and pay her a visit.

I am pleased to join her on the last Friday of each month for pie and crust recipes, techniques, tools of the trade, and other inspiration.

For more information and recipes, please check out her #FridayPieDay page!

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