October 13, 2016
For this week’s blog post, I wanted to share with you a recipe that I tried out in my mission to be a little less wasteful. I find that I am a bit of a food hoarder, in that I tend to grab what is on sale, or what I feel like I might want to eat later on, and end up holding on to it for ages. I often won’t eat it for ages, and sometimes it will end up going off. But at the time I feel that I might want it, or I’m getting a good deal, and so I’ll buy it for a rainy day. This has resulted it a serious storage problem in our small apartment, we just don’t have the room for my hoarding. Seriously, if we were in America, I think I would be one of those people on that Extreme Couponing show with their stockpile, because I love a good bargain. But alas, Australia’s coupon system doesn’t allow for this, which is probably a good thing, otherwise our apartment would be filled to the brim with enough deodorant to last us 20 years (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, do yourself a favour and watch the show…quality entertainment).
So I have decided to make a conscious effort to start using what I’ve got, and stop buying things just because they are on sale and I might need them later on. I live so close to the shops, there really isn’t a need for stockpiling food. It has also resulted in more baking, which has been beneficial to all parties involved, so it really is a win win situation. Decluttering and baking delicious food? Count me in!
So I found that we had been stockpiling apples, as we get them free from work. Between the two of us, my housemate and I seem to forget to eat our apples, and so we had ended up with about 15 apples in our fruit bowl, which we could not possibly consume in one sitting (well, we could try, but there is only so much apple you can eat). This prompted me to think about what I could do with them. I’ve made a number of apple related desserts in the past, and so decided to try something different. I wanted to make something that would last a bit longer, that was healthy, and that we could use throughout the week for multiple purposes. So I found a recipe for healthy apple butter, which was absolutely delicious. But then I realised that we weren’t eating that quick enough either, so found another recipe to use the unused apple butter, in order to use up even more of my hoarded goodies in the pantry!
So you see, you benefit from this too. I got to use up a whole heap of unused items in my pantry, reducing my wastage, and you get two recipes. How good is that? No need to thank me, I am in a giving mood this week.
If you feel like eating healthy, the apple butter is really delicious and literally has two ingredients, so is quite simple. But if you want to take it to the next level and bake something less healthy with it, you can use the second recipe! It all depends on what you are feeling like, I’ll leave it up to you!
- 15 apples
- 2 tablespoons of ground cinnamon
- ½ cup of unsalted butter melted
- 2 eggs
- 2 cups of apple butter
- ½ cup of caster sugar
- 1/8 teaspoon of salt
- 2 cups of plain flour
- 1 teaspoon of baking soda
- 1 packet of Reece’s peanut butter chips
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Roughly chops the apples, removing the cores but keeping the skin on.
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Place in a slow cooker and add the cinnamon, stirring to coat evenly. Leave the slow cooker on low for about 8 hours, or until the apple has become like a paste. At about 6 hours I used a masher to break down the pieces, you could also use a blender to get the consistency you want. I prefer mine chunky so left it quite thick.
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When ready, remove from the slow cooker and store in glass containers in the fridge.
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Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350F). Line a loaf tin with baking paper and set aside.
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In a large bowl, combine the melted butter, eggs, apple butter and coconut sugar.
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Once the wet ingredients are incorporated fully, add in the flour, baking soda and salt, stirring to completely combine. Fold in the peanut butter chips, ensuring they are evenly spread throughout the mixture.
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Pour the mixture into the loaf tin and bake for 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Allow to cool for 15 minutes in the pan, then remove and continue cooling on a cooling rack.
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Cut into slices and serve.
So there you have it, two recipes in one blog post! I highly recommend making the apple bread out of the apple butter, it is pretty delicious! Certainly worth the effort, especially if you have apples around that need using. It’s a great way to use up food that would otherwise go to waste, and you get something delicious in the process. You don’t have to use it for the apple bread though, there are plenty of other uses! You could serve it with cheese, or put it on toast, or you could even mix it in to your morning porridge, muesli and yoghurt. It is actually quite healthy, even though it’s called butter, and would be a great addition to your morning meal! Or cheese, which is my personal favourite. Hey, you could even put it on peanut butter toast for a taste sensation!
The apple butter bread went down a treat in our household, and was the best straight out of the oven. I even had some with some icecream which was next level tasty! It is best served warm, so a couple of seconds in the microwave will really add to the whole experience if you can be bothered! Not essential but certainly worthwhile!
I think I have found my new favourite thing though, I mean who would have thought peanut butter chips would be a thing? But they really are the best, so I’m glad someone thought to invent them. I love peanut butter so much, I wish I could put it in everything! If you don’t have these on hand however, you could definitely cook the apple butter bread without them, it really won’t matter. Same goes for if you are weird and don’t like peanut butter, the bread speaks for itself in terms of delicious flavours, so it isn’t critical!
Does anyone have any recipes for using up spare apples? I seem to always have a surplus, so keen to hear your ideas!
Until next time, happy eating!
Ella xx
