Fried Sausages and Apples

Nothing goes better with fried sausages, especially ones made with pork, then apples. The recipe for this classic combination comes from the newly released book, chock full of information, The Hamilton Cookbook: Cooking, Eating, and Entertaining in Hamilton’s World by author Laura Kumin.

Hamilton the Musical debuted on Broadway in August 2015 but by Christmastime that year, both of my daughters were completely smitten and knew every single word. Each time we got in the car to go somewhere, Bluetooth automatically hooked up to their phones and the sing-along began. The tunes are catchy, the story engaging and I was drawn in as well. I can’t sing along as rapidly or as accurately as they can, but I thoroughly enjoy the music and lyrics.

If you follow me on Instagram, you know that this past August my daughters and I traveled the width of the United States in a rental car, from the east coast of Massachusetts to the shores of the Pacific near Los Angeles. The Hamilton soundtrack accompanied us along the way.

Much to our delight and surprise, when we reached LA, we were able to buy last minute tickets to a performance of Hamilton at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre where it had just opened. Sure, we were in the very back row, but who cares? We were ecstatic to be in the audience at all!

This is all to explain why I jumped at the chance to review Laura Kumin’s newly released The Hamilton Cookbook: Cooking, Eating, and Entertaining in Hamilton’s World. With her background in research and skills in the kitchen, I knew that Laura would be the perfect author to combine two of my favorite things, cooking and Hamilton.

Aside from the 30 recipes, Laura shares a whole lot of historical information on the life and times of Alexander Hamilton. If you are a fan of the show, or the man, you are going to love this book. The publisher did send me one book but (keep this hush-hush, please!) I had already preordered another for my son-in-law as a Christmas gift way back in October. I was that excited about this book!

Fried Sausages and Apples

From The Hamilton Cookbook: Cooking, Eating, and Entertaining in Hamilton’s World. Recipe reprinted by permission. The Hamilton Cookbook takes you into Hamilton's home and to his table, with historical information, recipes, and tips on how to prepare and serve the food that our founding fathers enjoyed. It's on sale now at Amazon (<affliliate link) or your favorite bookstore.

Adapted from “Fried Sausages,” Hannah Glasse,
The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy.
Serves 2 (as a main dish)
This dish is great for a weeknight dinner; it is quick to prepare and uses just one large pan. It makes a full meal with just a salad and a loaf of crusty bread.

INGREDIENTS
1/2 to 3⁄4 pound thick country or other similarly spiced chicken, turkey, or pork sausage (about 1-inch in diameter) 350g German Weiss sausage

4 to 6 apples, preferably of mixed varieties, peeled and quartered. Any apples that keep their shape will work (e.g., Granny Smith, Yellow and Red Delicious, and Fuji). Quarter, and thinly slice half of the quartered apples.

1. In a large, heavy pan, start the sausages cooking under medium-high heat. As soon as the sausages begin to render their juices, add the thin apple slices. Turn both the sausages and the apple slices so that they brown evenly.

2. Once the apple slices begin to brown, add the apple quarters, and stir occasionally. After 2 to 3 minutes, cover the pan for a few minutes. That helps the apples soften and brown. It will also allow a bit of liquid to accumulate in the pan. Uncover the pan and continue cooking until the sausages are fully cooked. (The time required to cook the sausages depends on their thickness, typically about 10 to 15 minutes. You can ensure that the middle cooks thoroughly by cutting the sausages down the middle vertically to butterfly them after 10 minutes, laying them flat to continue cooking for another 3 to 5 minutes.) The thin apple slices will slightly disintegrate into a chunky applesauce, while the quarters will remain whole.

3. Serve on a platter with the sausages in the middle along with the applesauce, surrounded by the apple quarters.

Want to win your own copy? Enter below. Entrants must be 18 or older with a shipping address in the continental United States. The winner will be randomly chosen at the close of the entry period. He or she will be notified by email and must respond in 48 hours or an alternate winner will be chosen. This giveaway has closed! 

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Spelt Banana Bread #BreadBakers

This delicious spelt banana bread is made with plenty of brown sugar, ripe bananas and nutty tasting spelt flour, for a treat that tastes decadent enough for a holiday snack.

Spelt is one of the so-called ancient grains, which are supposed to be healthier than their modern counterparts. It’s not gluten-free but it is lower in gluten than normal wheat with a nutty flavor that works well in baked goods. If you like baking with spelt, you might also like to try these wonderfully fudgy brownies, coconut energy muffins or a nutty, spiced yeast bread.

You’ll notice that by weight, this banana bread is equal parts brown sugar and spelt flour. This is deliberate. The brown sugar is what pushes it into the treat category, beyond just banana bread. It’s super easy to make, using what I like to call the modified muffin method: Wet ingredients (plus sugar) in one bowl, dry in the other. Fold together and bake.

Spelt Banana Bread

The decorative sprinkle of pearl sugar is not essential but it sure does make the spelt banana bread more festive.

Ingredients
3 very ripe bananas
1 cup, packed, or 200g soft brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup or 120ml (4fl oz) buttermilk
1/2 cup or 113g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 cups or 200g spelt flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Optional (DO IT!) to decorate: Pearl sugar

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C. Line a loaf pan (9 x 5 inch or 13 x 23cm) with baking parchment or grease it thoroughly with butter then flour. Set aside.

In a large bowl, mash your ripe bananas with a fork. Add in the brown sugar, eggs, buttermilk and butter. Whisk thoroughly to combine.

In another small bowl, whisk together the spelt flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Tip the dry ingredients into the bigger bowl. Fold until the dry ingredients are just combined with the wet.

Pour the batter into your prepared loaf pan. Those are brown sugar lumps you are seeing.

Sprinkle the top with pearl sugar, if using.

Bake in the preheated oven for 55-60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when you poke the center of the bread. If it starts to brown too much, you can cover the top with foil.

Leave to cool in the bread pan, then turn out and slice to serve.

Enjoy!

This month all of our Bread Bakers are using whole grained flours to bake our holiday breads. Many thanks to our host Kalyani of Sizzling Tastebuds for this great theme.

• 100% Whole Wheat Bread from Cook's Hideout
• Eggless Whole Wheat Chocolate Cinnamon Rolls from Spill the Spices
• Gingerbread and Oatmeal Bread from Mayuri's Jikoni
• Kamut Cloverleaf Rolls from Cindy's Recipes and Writings
• Key-Shaped Challah with Finger Millet from Sara's Tasty Buds
• Khameeri Puri from Sneha's Recipe
• Oats Whole Wheat Bread from The Mad Scientist's Kitchen
• Santa Lucia Buns from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Slovak Pasca from Ambrosia
• Spelt Banana Bread from Food Lust People Love
• Whole Wheat Grissini from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Whole Wheat Stollen from All That's Left Are The Crumbs
• Wholewheat Garlic Flavoured Monkey Bread from Sizzling Tastebuds

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page.

We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

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Peppermint Pinwheel Cookies

Peppermint dough and mint chocolate swirls or peppermint glaze - or both! - make these pretty peppermint pinwheel cookies. They are perfect for your Christmas table or cookie exchange.
 




It wouldn't be Christmas without some cookies, right? And peppermint is an essential Christmas flavoring so I decided to put those two things together!

These peppermint pinwheel cookies are actually quite easy to make, although there is some waiting while the dough firms up, (See note below.) so do plan accordingly. They are the perfect size for popping in your mouth every time you pass the cookie plate but since the recipe makes 5 dozen, that shouldn't create a problem. With mint glaze and melted chocolate drizzled on them, they are sure to be everyone's new favorite Christmas cookie.

Note: Like any cookie dough that needs to be rolled out before cutting, the process will be easier if your dough has time to chill in the refrigerator. Plan on at least an hour of chilling time before rolling it out and four hours in the freezer before baking. Or make the dough a day or two before you plan to bake. It will keep beautifully, well-wrapped in cling film in your freezer.

Peppermint Pinwheel Cookies

These peppermint pinwheel cookies are adapted from this filled cookie recipe on My Recipes.

Ingredients for about 5 dozen + cookies
For the dough:

1/2 cup or 113g butter, softened
1 cup or 200g sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups or 220g flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon red food coloring paste for red half (I use Wilton no taste red.)
1/2 teaspoon mint extract for white half

For the peppermint glaze:
1/2 cup or 65g powdered sugar
2 teaspoons milk
1/2 teaspoon mint extract
Pinch salt

For the mint chocolate drizzle:
1 3/4 oz or 50g mint dark chocolate bar (I used half a Lindt bar.)

Method
Cream the butter and sugar together with your electric mixer, beating until light and fluffy.

Scrape the bowl down with a rubber spatula then add the egg and vanilla, beating until blended, scraping bowl again as needed.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt.

Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, beating at a low speed until blended.

Set aside half of the dough. (Mine weighed 598g so I took out 299g. Scale users unite!) If you don't have a kitchen scale, eyeball it.

Knead food coloring paste into remaining portion of dough while wearing rubber gloves or, if you are so fortunate, use the K-beater in your stand mixer to combine the two. Cover the dough with cling film and chill for at least one hour.

Knead the mint extract into the other half of the dough, or once again, use your stand mixer to combine the two. Cover the dough with cling film and chill for at least one hour.

Once chilled, roll each half into a 12- x 8-inch or 31x20cm rectangle between two pieces of baking parchment or waxed paper. Check out this great video from Crazy For Crust, to see how to do it. Just stop before you start cutting out cookies.

Once you have them rolled out, trim the rounded edges and neaten up your rectangles with a sharp knife.

Put the parchment or wax paper back on top and use your rolling pin and very little pressure to stick those pieces to the bigger piece again.

Peel one side of the parchment or wax paper off of each rectangle and lay one rectangle of dough on top of the other and press down gently so they stick together. Peel the paper off the top. Save the parchment paper because you can use it again for wrapping the dough and then baking.

Cut the double rectangle in half lengthwise to create two long equal rectangles.

I decided to roll one half up with the peppermint dough on the inside and one with the red dough on the inside, so I flipped one over, but you can make them all one way or the other.

Use a piece of the parchment or some cling wrap to help you roll the two dough rectangles up tightly, from the long end, so you end up with two long skinny tubes.

Wrap these again in parchment or cling film and freeze for several hours.

When you are ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare a couple of cookie sheets by lining them with baking parchment or silicone mats.

Cut the rough ends off of one log, leaving the other in the freezer, then slice the log into circles. Depending on where you stand on the subject of eating raw egg (and now flour!) you can discard the ends or eat them.

Place them on the prepared cookie sheets with a couple of inches or at least five centimeters between them. As you will see, mine were too close so many of them spread out enough to join together.

Bake for 7-8 minutes or until puffed and set.

Cool cookies on baking sheets for several minutes and then remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Repeat with the other dough log until all the cookies are baked and cooled.

Mix up the glaze ingredients and set aside. When you are ready to decorate, put the glaze in a plastic bag and cut off a very small corner so you can pipe the glaze onto the cookies.

Or melt the mint chocolate in a microwaveable vessel, 15-second zaps at a time, stirring well between each zap. Use a piping bag to drizzle on the chocolate. You can use a plastic bag for the chocolate as well but I find the proper piping bags are easier to handle with warm chocolate.

Enjoy!

This week my Sunday Supper friends are sharing their favorite cookie recipes for Christmas. There are so many I'd like to try! Check out the list below.

Traditional and Tasty Cookies to Share

• Candied Cranberry Walnut Oatmeal Cookies by Soulfully Made
• Cherry Chocolate Pistachio Cookies by Cindy’s Recipes and Writings
• Chewy Pumpkin Sugar Cookies by Pies and Plots
• Coconut-Key Lime Thumbprint Cookies by Gourmet Everyday
• Cranberry Pistachio Shortbread Cookies by Jersey Girl Cooks
• Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies by Our Good Life
• German Ginger Cookies (Ingwerplätchen) by Caroline’s Cooking
• Hot Cocoa Cookies by That Skinny Chick Can Bake
• Italian Rainbow Cookies by April Golightly
• Orange Cardamom Cookies by Sunday Supper Movement
• Peppermint Pinwheel Cookies by Food Lust People Love
• Pumpkin Molasses Cookies by Fantastical Sharing of Recipes
• Spiced Persimmon Cookies with Figs by The Wimpy Vegetarian
• Toffee Cookies by Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks

Fun and Festive Cookie Alternatives

• Best Ever No Bake Eggnog Truffles by Bites of Wellness
• Cappuccino Crinkles by A Little Fish in the Kitchen
• Chocolate Coated Krispy Peanut Butter Balls by Positively Stacey
• Cranberry Date Bars by Palatable Pastime
• Healthy Magic Cookie Bars by Simple and Savory
• Peppermint Pizzelle by Eat, Drink & Be Tracy
• Rainbow Biscotti Cubes by What Smells So Good?

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