Autumn, glorious Autumn! I am so thankful we have four distinct Seasons. I have to say that Autumn is one of my favourite Seasons! I love the colours, I love the crunch of leaves underfoot, I love the crisp early mornings, I love the sun on a cold day but above all, I love my fireplace! I love being able to curl up in front of the fire with a good book and some quiet jazz music in the background.

Oh, I like the food too: apples, pears, plums, pumpkin, hearty soups and stews, substantial breads, hot coffee, to name a few. This recipe came through my FB feed the other day; since I had a few Granny Smith apples aging day by day….why do I buy these??? No one likes to eat them! When I was a kid we used to eat them with a dash of salt on each bite! Probably not all that healthy, but Yum! Anyway, they are such a brilliant Green that I like to have them in the fruit bowl. Granny Smiths are the perfect apple for this Pecan Apple Bread. Now in the original recipe the batter was baked in a loaf pan; I just think taking a loaf bread batter, throwing it into a bundt pan, dressing it up super pretty is so much more fun! That and it doesn’t take as long to bake. Anyway, you make your Apple Pecan Coffee Cake they way you want just so long as you DO make it!

Oh, hey, this recipe is lacking butter! I thought that was weird and maybe it was simply forgotten in the transfer to the internet? Happens. I tried to track the recipe back to an original site to no avail. Shrugged my shoulders and thought I would try it as listed before I changed it…didn’t have to! It came out perfectly! One little change that I made and will do again next time was to include a streusel topping…except it ended up on the bottom. Yes, I knew it would be on the bottom! I thought it would add some nice texture and I was right. Next time though I will put half the batter in the pan, some streusel mix then the rest of the batter and finishing off with streusel mix.

Pecan Apple Bread

1 cup Brown Sugar
1 cup Sour Cream
2 Eggs
2 teaspoons Vanilla
2 cups Flour
2 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Epicure Apple Pie Spice
or 1 teaspoon Cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon each: ground Cloves, Nutmeg and Ginger
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 1/2 cup peeled and chopped Granny Smith Apples
1 cup Pecans, chopped
Drizzle
1/4 cup Brown Sugar
1/4 cup Butter

Preheat oven to 350F.
Lightly spray a bundt pan with vegetable oil and swirl about 1/4 cup of flour around the greased pan; tap out excess flour.
Peel and chop apples; set aside.
Combine brown sugar, sour cream, eggs and vanilla in a large mixing bowl; beat on low speed until well blended.
Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, Apple Pie Spice, salt; stir well.
Fold in apples and 3/4 of the pecans.
Turn batter out into prepared bundt pan.
or Spoon half the batter into prepared pan, sprinkle with half the streusel, spoon in remaining    batter then top with remaining streusel.
Bake in preheated 350F. oven for 35 – 40 minutes or until pick inserted in centre comes out clean.
Remove from oven, run a small metal spatula around to loosen edges then cool, in pan, on wire rack for 20 minutes.
Turn out onto wire rack to cool completely.

Drizzle with Brown Sugar Drizzle:
In a small saucepan, over medium heat combine brown sugar and butter.
Stirring constantly, bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and allow to simmer for a minute or until it thickens.
Remove from heat and drizzle over cooled coffee cake.

Yield: 12- 18 slices

Streusel Topping:
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1/4 cup Flour
1/4 cup Butter, cubed
Combine brown sugar and flour together in a small mixing bowl.
Cut butter in with a pastry blender or simply rub butter in with hands, until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

When my mother was in hospital over the summer people often brought her fresh fruit from her garden. The blueberries started to pile up so I brought them home and made a Lemon Poundcake, added some Blueberries, a Lemon Glaze and came up with this delicious Lemon Blueberry Coffee Cake.

1 cup Butter, softened
1 cup Sugar
4 Eggs
3 Tablespoons Milk
2 Tablespoon Lemon Zest
1 1/2 teaspoon Vanilla
2 cups Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 1/2 cups Blueberries, fresh or frozen, unthawed

Lemon Glaze
1/4 cup Sugar
3 Tablespoons Lemon Juice

Preheat oven to 350F.
Lightly spray a Bundt pan with vegetable oil spray and dust with flour; tap out excess flour.

In medium mixing combine flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.

In a large bowl beat butter with sugar until light and fluffy.
Beat in eggs, one a time, until light and creamy.
Beat in milk, lemon zest and vanilla.

Stir dry ingredients into creamed mixture just until smooth.
Fold blueberries into batter.
Turn batter into prepared bundt pan and bake in 350F oven until pick inserted comes out clean, about 1 – 1 1/2 hours.
Remove from oven and let rest on wire rack, in pan, for 10 minutes.
Turn out onto cake platter and top with Lemon Glaze.

While cake is cooling, prepare Lemon Glaze by combining the two ingredients in a small microwaveable proof bowl, heat for 30 second intervals on HIGH until sugar is dissolved.
With skewer, poke holes all over top of cake; brush glaze evenly oer top.
Cool completely.

Canada Day is just not Canada Day around my place if I don’t produce something made with Strawberries! I have been craving Tim Horton’s Coffee Cake lately so I decided to bake up my own coffee cake, using strawberries and let’s see, what else do I have in the cupboards/fridge? Cream cheese, strawberry glaze, slivered almonds….Put it all together…

1 pkg Cake Mix (White, Vanilla, French Vanilla, Golden)
1/3 cup Butter
1 Egg

8 ounces Cream Cheese, room temperature
1/3 cup Sugar
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1 1/2 teaspoon Almond extract
1 Egg

1 pkg Strawberries, washed and sliced
4 ounces Strawberry Glaze

2/3 cup Slivered Almonds

Preheat oven to 350F.
Lightly spray a 9X13 baking pan with vegetable oil spray.

In mixing bowl, using paddle attachment,  combine cake mix, butter and one egg; mix for a few minutes while slicing strawberries.
Remove bowl from mixer stand and work the dough between your hands, squeezing and gently crumbling creating coarse crumbs.
Press all but 1 1/2 cups (to which you will add slivered almonds) of the crumb mixture into the prepared pan.
Bake in preheated 350F oven for 10 minutes.
Remove from oven, cool for about 15 minutes on wire rack.

In the meantime, clean mixing bowl combine cream cheese, sugar, egg, vanilla and almond flavouring until no lumps remain.

Top the base cream cheese mixture, spreading evenly then top with sliced strawberries, drizzle glaze over berries and even out.
Add slivered almonds to remaining crumble mixture before sprinkling over strawberry layer.
Bake for 30 minutes, or until lightly golden.
Remove from oven and cool completely on wire rack.
Cut into squares and serve.

Yield 18 squares

My German Grandmother passed along this recipe. Cinnamon and apples are always a great combination and this recipe is a fabulous blend of the two resulting in a moist, flavourful snack cake. You can dress it up by splitting it, adding a dollop of whipped cream, garnishing with another bit of whipped cream and a very light dusting of icing sugar and cinnamon.

2 cups Sugar

2 Eggs

3/4 cup Vegetable Oil

1/2 cup Milk

1 teaspoon Vanilla

2 cups Flour + 1 Tablespoon

1 teaspoon Baking Soda

1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder

2 teaspoons Cinnamon

1 teaspoon Salt

1 cup chopped Dates

4 cups fresh Apples, peeled and coarsely chopped

1 cup chopped Walnuts

Preheat oven to 350F.

Lightly spray 9×13 baking pan with Vegetable Oil and line with wax paper. Set aside.

Prepare apples. Peel and  coarsely chop apples; place in medium size mixing bowl and toss with the 1 Tablespoon Flour. Set aside.

Combine flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon in small mixing bowl. Set aside.

In large mixing bowl, beat together eggs and sugar until foamy. Add vegetable oil, milk and vanilla.

Stir flour mixture into liquid mixture.

Stir chopped apples into batter, pour and smooth into prepared pan.

Bake in preheated oven for about 60 minutes, or until tester inserted in center comes out clean.

Remove from oven, place on wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes before turning cake out of pan.

Turn out and cool completely.

Dust lightly with powdered sugar and serve.

My German Grandmother used to make this all the time! I think traditionally it is made with Apples but O-Mommy always used fresh Plums, in season or Plum Jam when they weren’t in season. She also used Apricots or Peaches when in season. Plum Gitterkuchen is my fave! Apple is a close second though!

2 cups Flour
1/2 cup Sugar
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/2 cup Butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup milk
1 large Egg
1 teaspoon Vanilla

Preheat oven to 375F (190C)
Lightly spray a  24cm Tart/Quiche pan with Vegetable Oil spray; set aside.

Mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together.
Make a well in the centre; into the centre add butter, milk, egg and vanilla.
Mix together using your hands.
Turn out onto lightly floured surface and knead for a few minutes.
Roll dough out to 24 cm circle 1.25cm thickness, and place in prepared pan.

Spread a thin layer of jam , over the dough. Or layer with fresh fruit; Italian Plums, pitted and halved, Fresh Peaches, pitted, peeled and sliced, Apricots, pitted and halved.

Bake in preheated 190C oven for 25 – 30 minutes.
Remove from oven to cool.
Serve warm with a dusting of icing sugar or a drizzle lightly with a glaze.

Warm out of the oven with a scoop of Vanilla Ice Cream? The best! Brings back memories of the summer I spent sitting in the kitchen of the big old farm house in the eastern Townships in Quebec!

*NOTE: I change things up on the spur of the moment sometimes. I had watched a youtube vid on gittekuchen because O-mommy’s recipe looked..off. The vid was in German so I didn’t understand a word of it! But I did like the coconut (or it could have been ground almonds, which would also work nicely) and slivered almonds that the presenter sprinkled on top before adding the lattice.

**Secondly, I couldn’t find my flan pan (somethings just seem to disappear after years in boxes; maybe my flan pan decided it would move onto a better cupboard and actually get used more than once every 10 years!)  I used a 25cm springform pan which worked very well other than having to fuss with the “fluted” edge a bit.