Apple Pizza

A couple of weeks ago I posted about the whole wheat pizza crusts I made. Well, one crust was used for the regular pizza, the other I used to make a dessert pizza. If you get a dessert pizza from one of the big pizza chains, you're probably going to get a can of pie filling on a crust with some kind of crumble and icing. I tried avoiding that. Instead I used thinly sliced apples and cranberries and topped that with a granola and brown sugar crumble. It really is a version of a tarte fine, a French tart of puff pastry with thinly sliced apples.

This pizza came out really well. I poached the apples in a simple syrup to prevent browning (I was cutting the apples well before I was baking) and to add sweetness. I was a little worried about the crumble because I winged it but it turned out good. The whole wheat pizza crust worked well because its savory flavor and hint of spice cut the sweetness of the other ingredients very well.

Apple Pizza

Makes 1 pizza

1 crust
2 large apples (I used Granny Smith)
1/2 cup dried cranberries

For the simple syrup
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup water

For the crumble
1/2 stick butter (room temperature)
1 cup granola
1/2 cup light brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 425° F. Combine the water and sugar in a medium saucepan and put on medium-high heat. Once it starts boiling, reduce the heat and let the syrup simmer. Slice the apples as thin as you can (this was a good excuse for me to try my new mandolin). Put the apple slices in the syrup and turn up the heat and bring to a boil. Once the syrup starts boiling again, remove the apples and let them drain and cool.

Once the slices are cool enough to handle (careful,boiling sugar is just as dangerous as boiling oil), layer them on the pizza crust. Sprinkle the cranberries on top of the apple slices.

In a medium bowl combine the butter, granola, and light brown sugar. Use a fork or a knife to "cut" the crumble up into little pieces and sprinkle over the pizza.

Place in oven and bake for about 10-12 minutes. Cool slightly, slice, and eat!

Northwoods Bran Muffins

On a typical day my breakfast is a muffin from the cafeteria at work. Nothing too fancy, a bran muffin, maybe a cranberry one. This past Sunday I was paging through my King Arthur Flour Baker's Companioncookbook, looking to see if was anything a little healthier to make when I stumbled on a recipe for raisin bran muffins. This sounded pretty good to me so I made a shopping list and went about my business. Later when I was getting ready to make the muffins I mentioned to Lorrie what I was making and she suggested cranberries instead of raisins (she hates them). I had already planned to modify the recipe so this wasn't a big deal. We called these Northwoods bran muffins because maple syrup and cranberries are two things that the northwoods of Wisconsin are known for.

This post is part of Cate's ARF/5-A-Day Tuesday round-up of recipes that use antioxident rich foods at Sweetnicks.

Northwoods Bran Muffins
based on the Raisin Bran Muffins recipe on page 72 of the The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion: The All-Purpose Baking Cookbook

Makes 12 regular sized muffins

1 cup milk (I used whole)
1/3 cup (2 3/8 oz) vegetable oil
2 large eggs
3/4 cup maple syrup (from Wisconsin actually)
3/4 cup (1 1/2 oz) wheat bran
1/2 cup (1 3/4 oz) old-fashioned rolled oats
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt (I used earth salts)
1 1/4 cups (6 1/2 oz) + 1 tablespoon whole wheat flour (I used 100% organic)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup (3 oz) dried cranberries

Preheat the oven at 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Combine the milk, oil, eggs, and maple syrup. Add the wheat bran and oats and set aside for about 15 minutes. In another bowl combine the flour, salt, cinnamon, and baking powder; whisk thoroughly. If needed, give the cranberries a rough chop so they are about the same size as raisins. Fold the dry ingredients and the cranberries into the soaking bran and oat mixture. Dish out into muffin cups and bake for about 15 minutes. These are done when a cake tester comes out cleanly.

I like these muffins but I wasn't prepared for the taste when I first tried them. I had the sugary, cakey muffins they sell at work in my mind and these are definitely not that type of muffin. It was the whole wheat taste that threw me. Also these are not sugary. If you want sweeter it would probably be safe to put another 1/4 cup of maple syrup and/or another 1/4 cup or so of cranberries without having to adjust the flour in the recipe. Lorrie brought these to work and a coworker (who was unable to have some of the other sugar-laden creations I sent in for dietary reasons) enjoyed these immensely.

I am also very happy to be sharing my first recipe.

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These muffins also appeared at Just Baking.