Aside from the homemade vanilla extract, probably my favorite items in mine and hubby’s homemade Christmas gift baskets were our butters, jellies, and jams. From left to right in the picture, we canned pumpkin butter, pomegranate jelly, and apple-cinnamon jam. It was my first time canning with my new water bath canner, and I had so much fun that I joined a canning group to experiment with new flavors throughout the course of this year. By the time Christmas rolls around again, I’ll have all kinds of fresh, seasonal flavors from the spring, summer, and fall to put in our baskets!

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This is my last installment of What To Do With All That Leftover Puff Pastry. Promise. Because even though I’ve discovered that I really enjoy making (and eating) puff pastry, it’s definitely one of those “once in a while” kind of treats. There’s really nothing fancy about this strudel; it’s a very basic one that I made it for breakfast one Saturday morning, and as such I wanted it to be simple and quick. Not only did it really hit the spot, but aside from the puff pastry (unless you have some in your freezer), you probably have all of this stuff on hand!

• 2 apples, peeled and chopped
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 Tbsp brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1 sheet puff pastry

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper. Cut the apples into small chunks.

In a medium bowl, toss the apples with the lemon juice. Add in the sugars, butter, cinnamon, and nutmeg, and toss to coat.

Roll out the puff pastry to about 1/4″ thickness. Spread the apple mixture over half of the pastry, leaving space on the sides.

Fold the top half over and pinch to seal the edges. Cut slits in the top of the dough. Brush the strudel with an egg wash and then sprinkle with granulated sugar.

Bake about 40 minutes or until golden brown.

Cut into slices and enjoy!

I mentioned in my turnover post that I’d be posting soon about the maple applesauce I used to fill some of them (as well as my vols-au-vents), so here it is! Michelle at Big Black Dogs was twittering about her apple maple butter recipe last week, and it sounded so amazingly good that I just knew I had to try it. She posted the recipe before the weekend hit, so I was able to borrow a food mill from one of my friends and start making it Friday night. I used the food mill to make the apple butter, but I didn’t want to waste the delicious leftovers, so I just called it “chunky applesauce” and went with it. Here’s my version of the recipe, adapted from Michelle’s recipe for apple maple butter.

• 10 cups chopped apples
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup pure maple syrup
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp cloves
• 1/2 tsp caradmom

Cut the apples into chunks. I really should have chopped them into smaller chunks than this to help them cook a little faster.

In your crockpot, combine all of the ingredients. Cook on high for 4 hours. After that, I turned my crockpot to warm and just let the apples sit overnight and get nice and mushy.

Mash the apples with a potato masher; it’ll make it easier on your food processor in the next step.

Grind up the mashed apples in your food processor.

Now, run the mixture through your food mill. You should end up with a nice, smooth, slightly thickened butter. I canned mine and got about 2 pints out of it, which I still haven’t used up!

This is the “chunky applesauce” remaining in the food mill that I just couldn’t let go to waste. Perfect for filling pastries!

And here is the canned apple maple butter. Yum! Thanks, Michelle!

After making that wonderful puff pastry on Saturday for the vols-au-vents, I just couldn’t wait to make one of mine and hubby’s favorites – turnovers. So, yesterday that’s exactly what I did. Once you have the puff pastry, the rest is easy! I made three different kinds of turnovers: pumpkin, blueberry, and apple.

Pumpkin filling:

• 1 cup pumpkin
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/8 tsp cloves
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon

Blueberry filling:

• 1 cup blueberries
• 1 Tbsp granulated sugar

Apple filling:

• Chunky maple applesauce

To make the pumpkin filling, mix all of the pumpkin filling ingredients together in a small bowl (or, you can probably just use pumpkin pie mix if you have it). For the blueberry filling, sprinkle the sugar over the tops of the blueberries and let them sit for a few minutes until they begin to soften. The apple filling I used was the same maple applesauce I used for the vols-au-vents, which I will be posting about soon!

After preparing the fillings, preheat the oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Roll out the puff pastry to about 1/4″ thick. Cut it into 3-4″ squares, depending on how big you want the turnovers to be. I made about 10 squares.

Drop a bit of the filling onto each of the squares.

Fold the tops over the filling, and use a fork to press the sides together. Try not to let any of the filling get out; you can see that happened with some of mine, but I was hungry and didn’t care to fix it.

Brush the turnovers with an egg wash, and then bake for about 10 minutes. Then, turn the heat down to 350 degrees and bake for 15-20 minutes longer or until golden brown.

The blueberry explosion you can see in the back is a result of the turnovers not being well-sealed, but oh well. They still tasted absolutely delicious!

Last weekend, it began: apple season. Well, in my opinion, anyway. On Labor Day I tend not to celebrate the end of summer, but the beginning of fall! While I haven’t gone apple picking yet (that’s on the agenda for this weekend!), I did have a few apples lying around and my new copy of Baking From my Home to Yours to flip through, since I was looking for something good to make for our Labor Day get-together. I happened to land on Dorie’s recipe for Brown Sugar Apple Cheesecake, and I instantly knew that’s what I’d be making. And, it was a hit! Creamy, delicious, and filled with the tastes of fall, this cheesecake is perfect to bring to any autumn gathering.

Recipe adapted from Baking From my Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan.

For the crust

• 2 cups graham cracker (cinnamon sugar) crumbs
• 2 tsp ginger
• 2 Tbsp brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 stick unsalted butter, melted

For the apples

• 1/2 stick unsalted butter
• 3 large apples, peeled, cored, and cut into eights
• 2 Tbsp light brown sugar

For the filling

• 3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar
• 6 Tbsp sugar
• 3 Tbsp apple cider
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup sour cream
• 1/3 cup heavy cream

To make the crust, first butter the bottom and sides of a 10″ spring form pan.

Break up the graham crackers (I used about half of a 14.4 ounce box of the cinnamon-sugar kind) and put them in your food processor, pulsing until you have 2 cups worth of fine crumbs. Stir in the ginger.

Melt the butter and pour it over the graham cracker crumbs, stirring until the mixture is moist and crumbly. Press the crumbs into the bottom of the pan and up the sides, as far as it will go. Put the pan in the freezer while you preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

When the oven has been preheated, remove the pan from the freezer and wrap the bottom in aluminum foil. Place the pan on a baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes or until the crust is lightly browned.

Cool on a rack while you make the filling and cook the apples.

To cook the apples, melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Pour in the apple slices and cook until golden brown. Sprinkle the apples with the brown sugar and cook a few minutes longer.

Put a pot of water on to boil and get a roasting pan large enough to hold the spring form pan ready. To make the filling, beat the cream cheese on medium speed, scraping down the sides of the bowl often, for about 4 minutes. Add the sugars and beat an additional 2 minutes.

Beat in the cider, vanilla, and cinnamon. Reduce the speed to low and beat in the eggs one at a time. Then, beat in the sour cream and heavy cream until well-combined.

To assemble, pour about a third of the batter into the crust.

Dice the apples further depending on how large you want the pieces.

Spoon them on top of the poured batter.

Cover with the remaining batter.

Place the spring form pan on the roasting pan, and then pour in enough boiling water to come halfway up the sides of the spring form pan.

Bake the cheesecake for 45 minutes, and then cover the cheesecake with a foil tent to prevent excessive browning. Bake an additional 45 minutes to an hour. If the center still isn’t quite set when you remove it from the oven, that’s okay.

Transfer the cheesecake to a cooling rack, and let it cool to room temperature. Refrigerate for at least 6 ours; overnight is best. When ready to serve, run a knife around the edges of the pan to loosen the crust. Then, open the latch on the pan and remove the sides.

Serve plain, or with a dollop of whipped cream.