Little Honey Almond Apple Hand Pies

These nice little hand pies are adapted from a recipe for mini pop tarts on the National Honey Board's website, which has as great variety of honey-related recipes. I did some fiddling with the recipe by adding a few thin slices of apple to the almond/honey filling and making them round instead of square.  Check out the original recipe for some great variations that include one for dark chocolate and another for spicy habanero (no lie!). 

Little Honey Almond Apple Hand Pies
For the pastry:
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all-purpose white flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons butter, chilled and cut into 1/4 inch cubes
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 (about) tablespoons ice water

Filling:
1/2 apple, peeled and very thinly sliced.  Toss with 1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/4 cup almonds
1/4 cup honey  
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
pinch of salt

For top of pastry:
pinch of sugar, optional

Whisk the flours and salt together. Cut in the chilled butter until it's the size of peas. (I did this in a food processor with a few quick pulses and then transferred it to a bowl.)  Sprinkle the olive oil over and toss to coat the flour as best you can.  A tablespoon at a time, sprinkle the water over the mixture, tossing with a fork and then, if you need a third tablespoon, your hands.  You want a firm by pliable dough that isn't too over worked (but don't be afraid to tell it who's boss!).  Form the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill for 30 minutes.  

While dough chills, set the oven to 400 degrees. Place the almonds on an ungreased cookie sheet and put them in the oven.  Remove them from the oven when it reaches 400.  Chop the almonds in a food processor--the more finely you chop them, the more gooey the filling will be. Combine the almonds honey, cinnamon and salt in a small bowl.  

When dough has chilled for 30 minutes, roll out on a lightly floured surface to about 1/8th inch thickness (as thin as you can!).  The olive oil in the dough should make it fairly pliable.  Cut dough into 2 1/2 inch rounds. (I used a  beer glass.) You should get about 8 rounds from the first roll.  Place half of the rounds on the cookie sheet, top with about a tablespoon of almond/honey filling and two or three thin apple slices.  Place a dough round on top of the filling, pressing to cover the filling.  Use a fork to seal the top dough round with the bottom. Then use the fork to gently poke a few holes in the top of the pastry. Repeat with remaining pastry rounds.  Roll dough out again.  You should get at least two rounds and maybe four from this one.  If you like, you can brush the hand pies with water (or milk or half and half) and sprinkle with a little sugar.  

Bake for 15-20 minutes until the pastry has browned at the edges and is firm to the touch.  Cool on cookie sheets.  Makes about 10 hand pies.  

Robert and I each had two for dessert--and I'm just now noticing that another one has gone missing--a clear Robert endorsement!  They're not very big--but if we want to be honest with ourselves (and we do--well, at least most of the time), then one hand pie is probably what the daily portion-per-human should be. 

I came out of blog retirement to make this apple kuchen with honey!

David Tanis's (New York Times) Apple Kutchen with Honey

Dearest Blog Readers (all three of you! Thanks Mom & Dad and Jarrett!),
I know it's been ages since I've posted to this blog.  Work and life got busy and the blog got put on a back burner.  I hope that this post is the start of more in the future.  I'm an ardent follower of the New York Times food page and heartily recommend their Cooking website, which is often the first place I search when looking for a recipe.  They recently added the option of commenting on the recipes and you can even link their recipes in Evernote as a way ot keep all recipes organized.

In any event, a recent recipe by David Tanis for Apple Kuchen with Honey is what drew me out of blog slacking.  We had friends from out of town and I wanted to make something that would be nice for dessert but could also fill in for breakfast, too.  This one did the trick!  It looks fancy, but isn't that difficult to make.  I will say, though, that the cooking time in the original recipe is way underestimated.  I baked this nearly twice as long as the original recipe called for.  I used some lovely and large apples McConnell's Farm and only needed two (though the original recipe calls for three).  It keeps for several days if you wrap it well!

Apple Kuchen with Honey 

1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar (plus a tablespoon for sprinkling on top)
1/4 cup honey
3 eggs, room temperature 
1 tablespoon grated ginger
2 ounces (about 1/4 cup) chopped crystallized (candied) ginger (optional)
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt 
2 large apples, peeled, cored and quartered

For the glaze:
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup honey
3 tablespoons lemon juice

Preheat oven to 325 degrees (this lower temperature insures that the honey won't burn).  Butter and flour a 9 inch cake pan (if you have a spring form pan, that's even better!).

With an electric mixer, beat the butter and suger together until light and fluffy.  Add the honey and whip for 1 minute.  Stir in the gingers and lemon peel.

Whisk the flour, baking soda and salt together then add to the bowl, mixing quickly.  The batter will be stiff.  Spread into the prepared pan.

With a sharp knife, make 1/8th inch slices in the apples--but don't go all the way through so that they hold their shape. Arrange the quarters on top of the batter in a nice, pleasing circle, with one quarter in the center.  If using a spring form pan, place it on a cookie sheet to catch any drips and put in the oven.  Though the recipe claims it should bake for 45 minutes, mine took about an hour and twenty minutes--but check after 45 minutes and keep checking until a knife or toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean.  (If it looks like the cake is browning too much and still isn't done, you can tent it with aluminum foil to stop the browning.) Cool on a rack.

For the glaze:  Put the sugar, honey and lemon juice in a sauce pan and cook over medium heat until it bubbles and the sugar melts--about two minutes.  Brush (or spoon) over the cooled cake. It's ready to serve after glazing, but keeps for several days if well wrapped.  The honey actually helps to preserve it!

Enjoy!
Jennie

Local Apple Salad

During the fall, I make this just about every day to pack in my lunch.  This recipe is easily adapted to anything you might have on hand. I've added 1/2 cup of sliced grapes, a handful of raisins, a sprinkle of cinnamon. If I don't have walnuts, I'll use almonds.  For me, the key ingredients are the apples, vinegar and ginger.  The vinegar keeps the apples from turning brown, so you can make this salad ahead. It's easily doubled if you're making the salad for more than one person.

LOCAL APPLE SALAD FOR ONE
1 local, tart eating apples (McConnell's Farm Jonagolds are particularly good with this!). Core the apples (but don't peel) and cut into 1/2 inch dice
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1  rib celery, cut in 1/4 inch dice
1/4 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, finely grated
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
1-2 tablespoons of honey (I use fall honey for this)
Toss the vinegar with the chopped apple.  Toss in the celery and walnuts, add the ginger, salt and olive oil and mix to combine.  Drizzle the honey over and mix to combine.This makes about 1 cup of salad and is easily doubled if you're making it for two.

Local Media Features Honey! (and recipes)

Two recent articles in local media highlight area honey.  Check out Kate Chynoweth's article in Pittsburgh Magazine, which features Master Beekeeper, Steve Repasky;  a nice discussion of local honey varieties; and a great recipe for honey goat cheese spread with Fuji apples.

And in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, last week,  Bob Batz offers some wonderful apples and honey recipes, just in time for Rosh Hashana.