More Fall Goodness

Yesterday I made a trip to the local apple orchard. There is just nothing like a good crisp apple straight from the orchard. I've always associated apples with fall, but for the past 7 years, I have not had a good apple in the fall. I was never able to find that orchard fresh crisp tart/sweet combo in an apple while we were in Texas. So yesterday and today have been major apple eating days. I bought a ton, but I may have to head back up and get some more at the rate we all I have been eating them.

So today's cooking experiment included finding a good caramel apple dip for all these yummy apples. Not that they need dip, but I just love apples and caramel. I have this memory from growing up of combining caramel ice cream topping with cream cheese and it was amazing, so I was looking to recreate that. Unfortunately caramel ice cream topping in the store is really nothing but corn syrup and hydrogenated oil, so I did a hunt and came up with a recipe to make my own. I think it's even better than what I remembered from growing up. Now if I can restrain myself from eating it too quickly.

Caramel Cream Cheese Apple Dip

1/2 cup sucanat or brown sugar

2 1/2 Tablespoons water (omit 1/2 T if using brown sugar)

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup heavy cream

1 Tablespoon salted butter

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

In a heavy sauce pan, combine sucanat, water, and salt. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until it is bubbly and beginning to thicken. (About 6 minutes total cook time.) Remove from heat and stir in cream and butter. Stir until the mixture is smooth. Pour into a bowl and stir in the vanilla. Let mixture cool for about an hour. Place cream cheese block in the caramel mixture and beat with hand mixer until smooth. Serve with your favorite apples.

Pumpkin Pancakes

It has been seven years since I've experienced the cool crisp mornings and cool evenings that come with Indiana fall. It feels to me like this has been an unusually warm fall with many days still in the 80's, but the nights have been cool and we've had several cool days as well, so fall food has been calling to me. I got a huge pumpkin at the farmer's market last week and cooked it up. It actually turned out not to be that great for cooking as my huge pumpkin only yielded 4 cups of pumpkin puree, but it's still very tasty, so it's time for some pumpkin pancakes. This recipe is a repost from my family blog, but it's so yummy I thought it was worth reposting here. If you prefer not to use 100% whole wheat, you can substitute some white flour and cut the eggs and oil in half.

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Griddle Cakes

1 3/4 Cups + 1 heaping Tablespoon whole wheat flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 Tablespoon Sucanat or brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1 Cup milk
2 eggs
2 Tablespoons olive oil or melted butter
3/4 Cup pureed pumpkin

Mix dry ingredients together. Mix wet ingredients together and stir into dry ingredients just until all is moist. Drop by spoonful onto hot griddle. Serve with butter, unsweetened whipped cream, chopped pecans, honey, peanut butter, or real maple syrup and enjoy!