Apple Crumb Pie

This season of apple picking was the best yet! The Stayman Winesaps were the darkest shade of maroon I have seen in three years. My first batch of apple butter is on the shelves, and my appled brandy and apple-spiced whiskey are busy getting sweeter and spicier for the holidays. With Thanksgiving around the corner and fall color at its peak, it felt like an apple pie kind of weekend. Feeling the need for something new, I made an easy change to my Classic Apple Pie recipe.

The result resembles the so-called "Dutch Apple Pie" with a streusel topping: flour, butter, sugar, and cinnamon. Using oats and nuts in this crumb topping resulted in a crumb slightly less sweet than usual. "Less sweet?!" Don't worry, with this pie less sweet is better. It's like the most delicious apple cinnamon oatmeal ever made. In other words, eat this pie for breakfast.

Apple Crumb Pie
Makes one 9 inch pie

Follow the pie recipe here, using only a bottom crust.

Crumb Topping
for one 9 inch pie

3/4 c. flour (white or whole wheat)
3/4 c. oats (barley, wheat, or rye)
2/3 c. sugar
1/2 c. chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans)
1 t. cinnamon
pinch of salt
6 T. cold butter

Stir together flour, oats, sugar, nuts, cinnamon and salt in a bowl. Cut in cold butter with fingers until butter is pea-sized. Sprinkle evenly over the top of the pie. Bake as directed.

Pumpkin Cupcakes

As soon as autumn arrives, everything is pumpkin; pumpkin soup, pumpkin ravioli, pumpkin coffee, pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin butter, pumpkin pie. Pumpkin, pumpkin, pumpkin. Imagine my surprise then, when I realized I have only posted one other pumpkin recipe in two years (this vegan banana pumpkin walnut bread last October)! So here we go...

For several years, I've made the classic PB and chocolate combo for my dad's birthday. Take a peak at these cupcakes and you will see why. This year we broke tradition and decided on pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. I was paging through the latest Food Network magazine not long after and found a recipe for pumpkin cupcakes in their "50 Things to Make with Canned Pumpkin" article.

The recipe starts as a spice cake and FN suggests doubling it to make cupcakes. I used Trader Joe's organic canned pumpkin, grown and processed in Oregon, which sells for $1.99 a can. Any pumpkin puree will do, just be sure not to use pumpkin pie mix which comes pre-spiced. Speaking of spices, FN calls for pumpkin pie spice which I substituted with cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves. The picky side of me prefers to add them individually. My only gripe with the recipe is the TWO sticks of butter in the cake. I didn't have time to experiment with the fats/oils this time around but I'm determined to lower the saturated fat in the future. Top these spicy cakes off with a sweet frosting like the cream cheese frosting you have already seen me pair with carrot, banana, and more.