The Last Harvest of Fall

Look what you can make with Knobby Apple Bread

Echoes from the Past

When I was a child, when the first frosts of fall hit, my mother gathered up her kids, even the youngest ones, and headed for my grandmother’s orchard. The apples had to be picked before it got bitter cold. They were the last crop of the season.

In my mind, I see red apples under leaden skies with snowflakes softly sifting through the branches. There are tall, steep mountains a few miles east of my grandmother’s orchard. Now the snow was mostly down the mountains.

Mackintosh was my favorite apple then and Jonathan.

We would pick several bushels and head home. We had apples for several months, stored in the barely-heated back porch. Some would end up in applesauce but many we ate, cold and crisp. Some she grated and stir into our morning pancake batter.

My mother made great apple pies, deep dish pies with lots of cinnamon. No two pies would turn out the same. Somehow, she managed to get the apples baked just right, the pieces soft but not mushy and firm but not hard. In my mind, they were pioneer pies, best served warm with homemade vanilla ice cream.

I miss the orchards and farms of rural America.

Knobby Apple Bread is our tribute to the orchards of America, a quieter lifestyle, and neighbors that you knew. We can’t use fresh apples in our bread but we can use the best dried apples we can find. The apples cook in the heat of the oven so that they meld into the bread leaving flavor and moistness. We add plenty of cinnamon, really good cinnamon.

Knobby Apple Bread makes great toast, slathered with butter with a little jam or thin layer of honey. I like peanut butter and honey sandwiches on knobby apple.

It’s a breakfast bread; it makes fine French toast. I have triangles of French toast frozen in our freezer at home. I slip a couple out and stick them in the taster to thaw and heat them. If I’m short of time, I don’t bother to put anything on them—just eat the warm slices on the way to work. Sometimes I reheat them in the microwave and pour syrup over them. Caramel flavored Buttermilk Syrup is the best.

Knobby Apple Sandwiches

While I think of Knobby Apple as a breakfast bread, Knobby Apple Bread makes great, slightly sweet sandwiches. Knobby Apple Sandwiches are especially fitting in the fall, but then again, we eat apples all year.

These are Kamie’s creations. She’s a magician in the test kitchen. She used mild Havarti cheese on both with apple slices. Of course, mild Havarti is a great complement to apples. You’ll like the crispness of the thinly sliced apples. You can interchange the meats, turkey and ham.

One has apple butter as a condiment and the other, cream cheese. The latter has lingonberry jam. Lingonberry is a cousin to cranberries and has a sweet-tart flavor similar to cranberries but sweeter. It’s perfect with ham or turkey.

The latter sandwich has bacon. Consider bacon for both recipes. These sandwiches are also good on Cranberry Nut Bread and Vanilla Almond Bread.

Knobby Apple Ham Sandwich

• 2 slices Knobby Apple Bread
• 4 slices Ham
• 4 slices Havarti Cheese
• Apple Butter
• Red Apple, thinly sliced

1. Spread apple butter on one side of both bread slices. Set aside.
2. Cook the deli ham until browned, then top the meat with the cheese slices, cover the stack with a lid, and melt the cheese over the meat.
3. Place the cooked stack on top of one of the slices of bread spread with apple butter and add your apple slices.
4. Add the other piece of bread that has been spread with apple butter for your top.
5. Place a small amount of olive oil in pan and grill the sandwich until it’s lightly browned on both sies. Serve while hot.

Knobby Apple Turkey Sandwich

• 2 slices Knobby Apple Bread
• 4 slices deli turkey
• 2-3 slices Havarti cheese
• Lingonberry Jam
• Whipped cream cheese
• Granny Smith apple
• 4 slices of bacon cooked crisply

1. Spread one slice of your bread with lingonberry jam and the other slice with cream cheese.
2. Place your turkey slices on one of the slices and add the sliced cheese. Add the bacon.
3. Place your sliced apples on and then add your top slice of bread.