Easy Apple Cinnamon Compote

Easy and fast, I might add. This is a compote that I also use on my Apple Cinnamon yogurt scones (post on that to follow soon). Fortunately, this also saves pretty well for a couple of days.

Making an apple cinnamon compote was inspired by having a few soft-ish apples and by my friend Holly, who brought a lovely compote to a dinner E and I hosted not long ago. Holly's compote used raisins, lemon, cloves, cinnamon, and of course apples! Plus, what tasted like a fair amount of sugar. This compote is definitely a low-sugar compote, because I wanted something to go on the scones that wouldn't overwhelm people who didn't really want a super-sweet bite.

Compotes also go well on dark green veggies, over things like pork chops (if you eat meat), and on other savory dishes, adding a little complexity to each bite. Or you can be like me and just eat it straight, or as an ice cream topping. Whatever. You taste it and decide.

I made only a small batch of this compote because I only had a few apples I wanted to use up before they went  too soft even for this, but you could easily double or triple this. If you have fresh lemons you could zest for this, lemon zest would kick it up nicely. I didn't, so I don't include that in the recipe.

Easy Apple Cinnamon Compote
2 or 3 medium apples, peeled if desired (I never desire peeling), and chopped
1 tablespoon agave nectar or honey (remember agave is vegan, honey is not)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
Pinch of salt (don't leave this out!)

Mix all the ingredients together in a small saucepan and cook, stirring often, over medium heat until the apples have juiced and the sauce has thickened again, about 20 minutes. Cook longer, stirring frequently to prevent scorching, if a thicker/drier compote is desired. Store in an air tight container in the refrigerator up to 3 days, or serve immediately.

Homemade Butter

Butter is incredibly easy to make. Cooking for Engineers has a lovely post on making butter--it talks about benefits of butter, the science behind making butter, and also about the "traditional" way of making butter. They use a stand mixer, but this is definitely not a requirement. In fact, it's something you can do as easily with kids as you can do with your dinner guests, or on your own. Since we had whipping cream to go with our butternut squash soup (that post will appear soon), I asked E if she wanted to make fresh butter to go on the fresh bread.

E was skeptical. I think she imagined a butter churn. I told her I'd made it with the kids I was nannying over the summer, and that they were 2 and 5. This convinced E that it wouldn't be so bad (especially after I assured her we had plenty of cream for making whipped cream for the brownies I'd made her and for the soup, which was our real reason for buying whipping cream.) I love guilt-trips.

We poured cold whipping cream into a small jar and screwed on the top. E started agitating (shaking) the jar. After a bit--when we both thought maybe she'd been shaking it too long, we opened the jar, looked at the thickening cream, and poured off half the jar (about 1/2 cup--it'd started off with just about a cup) so that the process would go faster. E passed the jar off to our friend Caitlin, who was at our place for dinner and Caitlin diligently shook the jar. It finally started to form a very thick cream and then, very soon after that, butter and buttermilk. We added some salt, and Caitlin shook it a while longer. Then we scooped out the butter and got rid of the buttermilk (though you could use it -- I might recommend pour it off before you add the salt if you want to do that).

Then we added the other 1/2 cup back in and E had the opportunity to finish making butter. It went faster this time, in part because the cream was even colder (I'd stuck it in the freezer) and in part because there was less in the jar, and was therefore easier to agitate. At one point, E looked at me and said "I think it turned back into cream!"

What had, in fact, happened was that the butterfat and buttermilk separated. I got her to shake it a little longer and then we added salt and she finished shaking her butter. We spooned it out and put it on the same dish as Caitlin's butter--just in time for the hot bread and butternut squash soup.

All-in-all the entire process, both sets of butter probably took a collective 15-20 minutes. We had soft butter on the table and it was satisfying to spread fresh butter on my gluten-free bread--and I think fun to have a pretty much completely homemade meal, right down to the butter.

Although we used a jar to make butter, you can also whip it with a whisk or fork. In the past, I've accidentally created (literally sweet) butter by over-whipping air into whipped cream. Oops. But a kind of happy mistake that I spread on waffles a few days later.

Homemade Butter
Whipping/heavy cream
Salt (optional)

Pour a small amount of very cold whipping cream into a small jar that can be closed with a lid. Close the jar and shake until a ball of butter begins to form, about 5-10 minutes, depending on the amount of cream you used.

Pour off the buttermilk, add salt, and shake or stir in. Pour off any additional buttermilk. Chill in the refrigerator to help it firm up, if desired. Keep any butter you don't use in a sealed container, in the refrigerator, on in a butter bell.

Product Review: Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese, Herbs and Chives

I don't like cream cheese. I'm just going to put that out there. Cream cheese frosting? It's okay. Occasionally. Like once a year, or on carrot cake. Cheesecake? I'll pass. Cream cheese on a bagel? For the most part, spare me.

But at some point back, I had a vegan carrot cake at the R. Thomas Deluxe Grille in Atlanta. If you haven't been there, you should go. I make a point of stopping there whenever I happen to be in Atlanta (and not just in the airport). I'm getting distracted from the point though. To say the least, after that visit (where I also shared, family style, several other dishes with my traveling companions), I learned to like fake cream cheese. It's not as strong as "regular" cream cheese, it doesn't leave an oil slick on my tongue, and well, in all honesty, it doesn't taste particularly like cream cheese.

For a long time, I only used fake cream cheese for vegan cream cheese frostings. And so, I wasn't buying it often or using much of it. But then, during my most recent move, I accidentally picked up a Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese Herbs and Chives. I think I actually intended to buy plain, for some specific purpose. Rather than returning it when I realized my mistake, I opened it and tried it (mostly because, in the past when I've been convinced to eat cream cheese, it's been flavored with other things).

It tasted like Thanksgiving to me. Stuffing, to be exact. And that was a lovely addition to my new GF yeast-bread endeavors, as well as to just making me feel like I was getting something more savory. It's smooth, creamy, and doesn't have that particularly tofu-y taste of the plain version of this mock cream cheese (or other mock cream cheeses). It spreads easily--perhaps more easily than traditional cream cheese--and where I'm living, it doesn't cost anymore for a tub of Toffuti than it does for organic cream cheese.

Tofutti makes other lactose- and milk-fat free varieties of "better than cream cheese," but I haven't seen them in my stores yet. According to the website, I should also be able to find garlic and herb (I wish!), garden veggie, French onion, and smoked salmon flavors--hopefully they'll come to a store near me soon, or better yet, maybe Tofutti would like to send me samples to review (fingers crossed!). The smoked salmon Tofutti product, in case you were wonder, is not vegan.

Since I first accidentally purchased the Herbs and Chives version, I've been purchasing it regularly. It's comforting to eat, nice and melty, and helps dress up my GF breads.

Agave-Sweetened Blackberry Jam

Blackberries are plentiful and everyone's out picking them. I see people people walking around with mason jars half-filled or filled with blackberries. I see people (like myself) wandering around with plastic bags and tubs gathering berries. And I see people (also like myself) picking just a couple and eating them.

You can tell a blackberry is ready to pick when it practically melts off its stem while you're pulling it off the bush. Usually at this point, blackberries have lost their sheen and are dark and perfectly black. My blackberries weren't all fully ready when I made this jam, as you can see from the picture, but I needed enough to make jam because I had enough that were crushing under the weight of their fellow berries and forming blackberry juice.

For the past couple of weeks, my fingers have been stained with blackberry juice, which has been lovely--and has made me even more excited for making blackberry jam (especially once my friend Rachael shared that she was making blackberry jam while listening to Iron & Wine one recent evening).

This is a simple blackberry jam, sweetened with agave nectar since some of my berries were under-ripe and tart.

Agave-Sweetened Blackberry Jam 
1/2 gallon fresh blackberries, well washed
2-3 tablespoons agave nectar
1 tablespoon lemon juice

In a medium pot, over medium-low heat, cook the blackberries until soft, then stir in the agave nectar and lemon juice.

Continue to simmer over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally until the jam has thickened to the desired consistency.

This will keep in the refrigerator, in a closed container, for about 2 weeks, or you can freeze it.

Autumn Harvest Butter

This simple recipe combines some of the best flavors of fall: pumpkin and apple. The recipe I originally made used freshly baked, mashed pie pumpkin, but you can also use the 100% pure pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling!). The jar on the right is the pumpkin butter; the two smaller jars are spicy pineapple core relish.

The best part about this recipe is how fast and simple it is to make. How long you'll need to cook it will depend on whether your applesauce is very thick and how thick you like your pumpkin butter. I used homemade applesauce made from Macintosh apples the first time, but the second time, I just used store bought unsweetend applesauce.

Enjoy!

Autumn Harvest Butter

15 ounces 100% pure pumpkin puree
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar (to taste)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch cardamom
1 tablespoon lime juice

Combine all ingredients together in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a simmer, stirring frequently, and allow to cook for 10-15 minutes, or until mixture is sufficiently thick (this will depend on your personal preference).