An Ode to Apples + ALL the Apple Recipes

Happy Friday, Friends! Today is a dedication to apples. I don’t have an essay as I’m traveling (to a family reunion on James’s side), but I’m sharing a slew of apple recipes as well as a slow cooker applesauce that tastes like childhood and comfort and love.

The forbidden fruit, temptation, sin, the “fall of man”…  No thank you. These are not the symbols that I choose to associate with apples. To me, apples represent something far more nourishing. They’re the bridge between the light of summer and the darkness of winter. In their raw form they taste of sunshine and crisp skies, and when cooked they remind me of warm fires and soft quilts. Apples sweeten the transition from long days towards even longer nights, from movement towards rest, from life and abundance towards death and release. They remind me that you can’t have new growth without first letting things go. In the brilliant words of Mary Oliver: 

I have dreamed 
of accomplishment. I have fed 

ambition. 
I have traded 
nights of sleep 

for a length of work. 
Lo, and I have discovered 
how soft bloom 

turns to green fruit, 
which turns to sweet fruit. 
Lo, and I have discovered 

all winds blow cold 
at last, 
and the leaves, 

so pretty, so many, 
vanish 
in the great, black 

packet of time, 
in the great, black 
packet of ambition, 

and the ripeness 
of the apple 
is its downfall.

-The Orchard, by Mary Oliver

So here’s to apples. May their sweetness help us bridge the seasons and release what is ready to be shed, trusting in the cycles of rest, decomposition, replenishment and growth.

Apple Recipes

(All of these recipes are naturally gluten-free, as always.)

Apple & Walnut Slaw: Vibrant, crispy and nutty. Pile it over the pork tenderloin medallions below or grilled pork chops.

Pork Tenderloin Medallions with Apple Cider Sauce: That pan sauce… It’s everything.

Butternut Squash & Apple Salad: One of my favorite salads, period, and you can make it ahead.

Quinoa, Apple & Spinach Stuffed Honeynut Squash: The cutest main course (and a vegetarian fave).

Easy Apple Honey Cake: My go-to fall cake. Actually, my go-to anytime cake.

Baked Apple Cider Donuts: They don’t technically contain apples, but they get dunked in apple cider. So fun (and easy).

Apple Almond Skillet Cobbler: A one-skillet cobbler featuring the easiest-ever almond flour shortcakes.

Apple Crisp: Crunchy, craggy and cinnamon-spiced with a high ratio of crisp to fruit (because that’s the best part).

Apple Cinnamon Galette: Far easier than a double-crust pie, but just as delicious. 

Apple Crumb Pie: Speaking of pies… This Apple Crumb Pie (officially James’s favorite pie ever), is featured in my Mastering Gluten Free Pie Making Class, where I teach foolproof pie making techniques and share exclusive recipes. Oh pie season, I love you.

Slow Cooker Applesauce

Of all the apple recipes I make, this applesauce is what my eight-year-old begs me for each fall. It’s bright with sunshine yet comforting with warm spice—the perfect expression of Apple. We love to eat it warm out of the slow cooker (swoon), swirled into thick yogurt with a dash of cinnamon and a sprinkle of granola (it tastes like pie), spooned over French toast or waffles, or layered it into parfaits and tarts.

Slow cooker applesauce with yogurt, cinnamon and this nutty granola

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