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Love Food & The Scent of Apples 🍎
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Hi Reader, Every year when the first chill sneaks into the air, I’m hit with the same scent—apples and cinnamon—and suddenly I’m thirty-something again, standing in my postage-stamp-size kitchen trying to impress a man I’d met only weeks before. (Spoiler: I succeeded. He’s still here, three decades later, eating the evidence.) That first autumn, way back in 1993, was our season of Love Food. We knew nothing about cooking or baking, yet we courted with food. The One's braised pork with apples. To hell with Marry Me Chicken! It can't hold a candle to his Shack-Up-With-Me Pork. I answered yes with a sour cream apple pie—my not-so-subtle way of saying, “I bake, therefore I am... worth keeping.” Together we cooked and ate (and gained weight) like people afraid the spell would break if the oven ever went cold. To this day, the smell of apples and cinnamon baking short-circuits my brain. Forget Proust’s madeleines—my memory trigger comes in a green Fiesta deep-dish pie plate. One whiff, and I’m back in that tiny kitchen with The One, his cassette player blaring that confounded Kenny G, and apples burbling away in a dish. It's a foundational memory that has come to define who I am, who he is, and who we are together. Tell Me Your Food MemoriesDo you have memories like that? Reply to this email and let me know. I'd love to post a list of food memories—whether related to childhood, family, love, friends, travel, work, or life. In times like these, we all need a little reminder of the good in the world. How to Bake Aromas That Seduce
WHAT'S INSIDE...
Apple Rose Tart
Sweet, crunchy apples crown this elegant, easy apple rose tart. Because the apples aren't baked, their crisp bite of honey and citrus shine through, and the creamy apple-butter custard adds a luscious mouthfeel.☞ Try this recipeRed Truck Bakery Apple Cake
Red Truck Bakery apple cake is loaded with apples, apple cider, sour cream, and warm spices in the batter, sorta like a cross between Bundt cake and coffee cake. Finished with a sweet maple glaze, it's every bit as impressive as you would expect from the famous bakery.☞ Try this recipeSuper Moist Apple Cake⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.82 from 11 votes
This super moist apple cake is made with different baking apples--Granny Smith, Macintosh, and Cortland. Plenty of cream, vanilla, and butter make for one of autumn's best desserts ever.☞ Try this recipeApple Crumble
This apple crumble is made with apples tossed in sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger and covered with an oat and brown sugar top. An easy fall dessert.☞ Try this recipeCheater's Apple Tarts⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.91 from 10 votes
This cheater's apple tarts recipe, made with puff pastry, apple slices, cinnamon, lemon, and brown sugar, is an easy dessert baked in muffin tins.☞ Try this recipePear-Cranberry Crumble
This is a lovely dessert to put together on a fall night, when pears are ripe and the cinnamon adds a deep warmth to the flavors. Serving it warm is most delicious, but if you can’t, no worries—it still tastes great.☞ Try this recipeApple Pie With Cheddar Crust
This Cheddar crust apple pie is made with extra-sharp Cheddar baked into the crust for a surprising savoriness that's the perfect contrast to sweetness of the Golden Delicious apple pie filling. Compliment worthy to the nth degree.☞ Try this recipeApple Coffee Cake⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.88 from 24 votes
Apple coffee cake made with sour cream, cinnamon, streusel, and an apple glaze in a Bundt pan is a guaranteed crowd pleaser. Provided, natch, that you're willing to share.☞ Try this recipeApple Spice Muffins With Pistachio Streusel
These apple spice muffins with streusel and pistachios are flecked with grated apple to make them crazy moist and flavorful. And they're topped with a buttery brown sugar and pistachio streusel. Perfect as breakfast or an on-the-go nosh.☞ Try this recipeApple Cranberry Crisp⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.77 from 13 votes
Apple cranberry crisp is a warm, comforting, and cozy autumn dessert. Perfect for dinner guests and leftovers make a terrific breakfast the next morning.☞ Try this recipe |
Leite's Culinaria
Why, hello! Leite's Culinaria is the James Beard Award-winning site that helps home cooks and bakers put dinner on the table and laughs in the kitchen. Hungry for more? Join more than 30,000 food lovers and subscribe.
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