apple. crisp. blondies.

because sometimes I want a dessert I can eat with my hands 😤

Well HELLOOOOO!

After a couple of weeks of unsuccessful recipe testing (a.k.a. testing pumpkin blondies 4 times and failing each time), I can finally say this week was pretty successful in the lab (my kitchen).

Although the engagement for this week’s videos/recipes is not close to that of any of my pumpkin-themed recipes, it feels good to be back in my groove as a cook. As they say, life is all about embracing the peaks and valleys, baby!!!!

Side note: I will say that I was slightly disappointed to find out that dessert sweet potato pancakes don’t do well on TikTok (a picture below of how I felt after sharing my sweet potato pancake recipe not once, but twice).

Anywhoooooo, let’s get to the substance, shall we?????

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Apple. Crisp. Blondies.

It’s apple season and when I think of apples, I think of apple crisp. As someone who LOVES apple crisp (or any fruit crisp for that matter), I wanted to create something that had the same taste and flavor as one of my all-time favorite desserts.

Plus, if I’m being honest, I tried to create a pumpkin blondie recipe on 4 separate occasions, but fell short each time (I kept getting a cakey texture, which was due to the high water content in pumpkin puree). But success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm, right??????

Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients

Blondies

1 apple (fuji, gala, envy, or granny smith), cored, thinly sliced and cut into triangles

1 Tbsp all-purpose flour

1 Tbsp brown sugar

1 cup apple cider, reduced

3/4 cup (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, melted and browned*

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp cornstarch

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt

Oat Topping

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup (½ stick) cold unsalted butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup rolled oats

Preparation

1. Preheat your oven to 375ºF

2. In a small bowl, combine sliced apples, 1 tbsp of brown sugar, and 1 tbsp of all-purpose flour. Mix until apples are fully coated in flour and brown sugar and set aside.

3. Add apple cider to a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Cook until 2 1/2 tbsp of liquid remains (once cooled, it will be syrupy).

4. In a large bowl combine butter, 1 cup of brown sugar, and the 2 1/2 tbsp of apple cider syrup. Add eggs and vanilla extract and whisk until fully combined. Stir in flour, cornstarch, cinnamon, and salt. Add the sliced apple mixture and stir until everything is fully mixed. 

5. To create the oat topping, combine flour, butter, brown sugar, and oats and mix, using your hands, until everything is combined and the butter is fully incorporated.  

6. Place your blondie batter in a greased or parchment-lined 8×8 pan. Spread the oat topping evenly over the batter. Bake for 40 minutes. 

7. Allow blondies to cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes before removing and slicing into squares.

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We’ve recently been frequenting Mendocino Farms and every time, I get the Curried Couscous Salad with the Vegan Banh Mi because it’s…delicious. Honestly, before we go each time, I tell myself I’m going to try something new, but I fail to follow through because as a wise man once said, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Listen, I am intimidated by the bread-making community. I think it stems from our bread-making unit in cooking school, where our bread instructor had us measure the temperature of the bowls we were using, the countertops we kneaded on, and every ingredient we used. His recipes also felt like they were written in a different language.

ANYWAY, I think there’s a massive discrepancy between the home baker and the professional baker because as someone who is a home baker, I just don’t think it’s ever that serious. Ironically, in the past few years of trying to keep up with the bread-making community as someone who loves bread, I somehow adopted the mentality that adding yeast to anything with sourdough starter is cheating???

However, this week, that changed. While on my quest to make the most perfect english muffin, I found this article on King Arthur’s website (the real pros) about why adding yeast to sourdough bread is actually great insurance AND helps maintain consistency.

Suffice to say, I’m a changed woman.

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I recently bought this candle on a whim from Home Goods (my favorite store behind Costco and Trader Joe’s) and it’s damn good. I loved it so much, that I went directly to the candle maker’s website and bought 3 more (another Eucalyptus, 1 x Sandalwood Amber, and 1 x Pumpkin & Spice). I JUST LOVE CANDLES SO MUCH!!!

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All I have to say is a successful week of recipe testing = a great week!!!!!!!

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Final side note: I’ve received some questions about whether or not I’m going to post Thanksgiving content and the answer is HECK YA.

As of now, I’m planning on doing a full week of Dish Breakdowns for the popular Thanksgiving dishes (turkey, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes and gravy, pumpkin pie, etc.). That said, I’d love feedback on what YOU deem as a traditional Thanksgiving dish, since we all have different traditions :)

Anyway, that’s all for today!!!

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend, ILY ALL!!! Cheers!!!

💛,

Zoe