Peanut Butter and Julie

Spiced Butternut Cupcakes with Brown Butter Buttercream

 

Well, I did it again.

It has been two weeks since my last post, but that's because it was a busy two weeks.  I did have some rather lofty and laughable aspirations of posting a new recipe within 3 or 4 days of the Tate's Bake Shop giveaway (congratulations to the winner, Donna!), so I missed the mark by just a tad.  Note:  In this case, "a tad" is defined as 11 days.

So here's a rundown of past two weeks:

First, some exciting news!  Well, it's exciting for me at least.  Eric's kind of excited too, since there's a potential substantial cash prize involved.  Those two words always seem to get his attention.  Last week, after submitting a video entry, I learned that I am one of four finalists who will be vying for the title of Sterling Vineyards Ultimate Host!  Now, I don't know all of the details yet, but I do know that I will head to NYC in December to compete against the three other finalists for not only this prestigious title, but for $40,000 and a trip for four to Napa!!  AND, as if that basket of goodies isn't enough, we will be judged by none other than Padma "Please pack your knives and go!" Lakshmi of Top Chef fame.  No, I'm not at all intimidated. Not one teensy-weensy bit.  At least that's what I keep telling myself.  

You can bet that I will be praying to the Hosting Gods every night for divine hosting inspiration between now and December.

 

 

I also had the opportunity to serve as a judge for Mix 94.1's Bite of Las Vegas, our largest local food and music festival, which was loads of fun.  Basically, my job (and I use that term loosely) was to visit the 40 food vendors at the festival, sample their best menu items, and then choose the winners in about 10 different categories.  Yeah, it was rough. 

My co-judges for the event were my friend, local food critic Al Mancini, and my new friends, chef Sammy D. from First Food & Bar at the Venetian, and our reigning Miss Nevada, the beautiful Alana Lee, who is doing one heckuva job representing our state.  At 21-years-old, she has 100 times more charisma in her little toe I than ever had at that age..........but that's probably why she's Miss Nevada at 21, whereas I was waiting tables at The Outback.

 

 

The big winner of the day was a relatively unknown mom & pop barbecue joint called H&H BBQ.  I'm going to go out on a limb and say that it was the best barbecue that I have ever had.  I say this as a girl who lived in Texas for 6 years and who went to graduate school in North Carolina, where BBQ is a religion.  Seriously, give H&H a try.  You won't regret it.

 

 

Right after my brutal judging gig, my mom arrived for a quick visit.  Between you and me, I think that she really came to visit her beloved grand-dogs, who have the Pavlovian response of rolling over onto their backs and sticking their stomachs upwards whenever she (a.k.a. Chief Belly Scratcher) enters the room.

In between belly-scratch sessions, Eric and I took her to see the Cirque du Soleil show, The Beatles LOVE, which is by far my favorite of all their Las Vegas shows.  To be honest, I'm not quite deep enough to really understand all of the symbolism that occurs during the show.  I think that the creator might have had some, ahem, herbal assistance when he was coming up with his ideas, if you get my drift.  It was still extremely entertaining, and I will definitely see it again.

And then, right after my mom departed, Eric came down with the flu over the weekend.  No offense, but you men are such babies when you are sick.  As a result, we missed our dinner out to celebrate our 8-year anniversary.  On the bright side, as Eric put it, "At least I was able to go back to work on Monday and maintain my 16-year streak of no missed work days."  Such a hopeless romantic, that Eric.

 

So in addition to all of the above and my work obligations, I have two big fat recipe flops to blame on this delayed post.  Occasionally I'll have one idea that works really well in my head, but it is either a complete failure in the taste or the appearance department (or both.)  Most food bloggers out there know that, even if your creation tastes extraordinarily yummy, it is extraordinarily tough to sell it to your readers if the picture doesn't do it justice.  So, recipe #1 was a mess in the photo department.  

Recipe #2 was just a mess.  Period.

Fortunately, the third time was a charm.  I had been experimenting with butternut squash puree in desserts instead of pumpkin, inspired by this year's rumored pumpkin shortage.  The butternut puree has a higher water content, and the flavor is not quite as bold as pumpkin, so there was a bit of trial and error involved with the ingredient ratios.  That said, when you roast the butternut squash before pureeing it, it becomes extra sweet and caramel-ly, which sets it apart.  These butternut cupcakes are super moist and basically interchangeable with pumpkin cupcakes in the event of a pumpkin stock-out.

Now, onto the really important stuff:  Let's discuss the buttercream.

 

If you've never had anything with brown butter in it or on it, I'm really, really sorry. Nutty, rich brown butter is not only one of the best aromas in the world, it transforms everyday recipes from ho-hum to woo-hoo!  The idea occurred to me to take my simple vanilla buttercream recipe and replace the regular butter with brown butter.  What resulted was one of the best, if not the best, simple buttercreams that I have every made.  Addictive. I could not stop taking little samples here and there.....and there.  See the little flecks of the brown butter in the photo above?  I'm kicking myself for not making a triple batch (suggestion: make a triple batch).

 

Here are some extra tips for preparing these squash-based sweets:

• The brown butter buttercream can be prepared up to five days in advance and chilled, covered, until ready to use.  Allow it to come to room temperature before proceeding.
• Make some extra brown butter and chill it separately.  Use it for spreading on toast or warm rolls, topping pancakes and waffles, or on a baked sweet potato!
• Butternut squash puree:  Preheat the oven to 425F degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or foil.  Spray the foil/parchment with nonstick baking spray.  Using a sharp chef's knife, halve a large butternut squash lengthwise and place the halves, cut sides down, on the baking sheet.  Pierce the halves several times with the tip of the knife.  Bake the squash until it feels soft to the touch and the skin has browned, about 40-50 minutes (depending on the size.)  When the squash is cool enough to handle, remove the seeds and the pulp with a large spoon.  Remove the peel and transfer the flesh to the work bowl of a food processor.  Puree the squash until smooth.
• If you have any leftover squash puree, save it for a healthy side dish!  Mix it with some cinnamon and maple syrup -- yummy!

Spiced Butternut Cupcakes with Brown Butter Buttercream

Printable Recipe

Makes about 28 cupcakes

For the cupcakes

1 cup canola or safflower oil

1 cup sugar

1 cup golden brown sugar, lightly packed

4 large eggs

2 cups butternut squash puree (see tips above)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt

For the Brown Butter Buttercream

1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon-sized pieces

4 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3-5 tablespoons heavy cream

Prepare the cupcakes:  Preheat the oven to 350F degrees.  Line 2 cupcake tins with paper liners and set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the oil with both sugars until well combined and smooth.  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition and stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary.  Beat in the butternut squash puree and the vanilla.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt.  With the mixer on low speed, gradually add the dry ingredients to the butternut mixture, beating until smooth and well combined.

Using an ice cream scoop (or a spoon) transfer the batter into the prepared cupcake liners, filling each about 2/3 full.  Bake the cupcakes until the tops are firm and a toothpick inserted into the center emerges clean, 16-18 minutes.  Allow the cupcakes to cool in their tins for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Prepare the buttercream:  Place the butter in a medium saucepan set over medium heat.  Melt the butter, stirring occasionally, and continue to cook until the butter has turned deep brown in color and it has a nutty aroma.  Allow the butter to cool for 10 minutes, then transfer it to a bowl.  Chill the butter until it has firmed up but is still soft enough to stir.

Place the butter, confectioner's sugar, and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.  Beat the mixture on low speed until well incorporated, then increase the mixer speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy.  Add the vanilla and beat until combined.  Add the cream, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating well for 30 seconds after each addition, until your desired buttercream texture is achieved.

Decorate the cooled cupcakes with the buttercream, either by spreading with a knife or by using a piping bag.

Honey-Glazed Peanut Butter & Apple Scones

 

 

Some people are snackers, while others make it a policy to never eat in between meals. Of course, some members of the latter group also subscribe to the "six-small-meals-a-day" plan, popularized by Hollywood diet gurus who warned their clients about the dangers of unconsciously over-snacking.

They call it a "small meal." I call it a "scheduled snack." Po-tay-to, po-tah-to.

I, for one, am proud to be a snacker, a grazer, a nosher. Since I'm a pretty active person, hunger often strikes at odd hours of the day. And I'm not one of those people who can just ignore my hunger, hoping that it will pass. I need to drop everything and address the dire situation at hand, immediately, if for no reason other than to quiet my very embarrassingly vocal stomach. I might be a snacker, but my stomach is a growler.

 

 

My challenge is finding snacks that are both healthy and filling, so I generally stick to a rotation of a handful of options. These include tamari almonds and turkey jerky, sliced carrots and hummus, a mini Golden Spoon fro-yo if I'm out and about, and those 100-calorie Think Thin bars. Most recently, I have become slightly obsessed with those Trader Joe's Wasabi Seaweed Snacks too (feel free to say "Ewww, seaweed." My husband does.) But seriously, they're really yummy, inexpensive, and healthy--the entire package is something like 70 calories. Why, that's a snacking trifecta!

Of course I cannot talk about snacking without mentioning my go-to pre-workout snack, which also used to be one of my favorite after-school snacks, which also occasionally makes a guest appearance as a bedtime snack: apples and peanut butter. I prefer a cold, crisp Granny Smith paired with a salty, natural, crunchy peanut butter (Whole Foods' 365 brand is good), but Honeycrisps and Galas are great too.

 

 

Whoever thought up this apples & peanut butter ingredient and flavor combination was nothing short of a genius. Maybe it was an accident, kind of like the old 80s Reese's Peanut Butter Cups commercials, where a girl just happened to be walking down the street with an open jar of peanut butter, and the guy was walking towards her with a chocolate bar. And whaddayaknow?  They run into each other and then -- eureka! -- awesome new flavor combination. Don't remember that? Here, let me help:

 

 

 

Oh yeah!  Those stylin' 80s.  Seriously, this has got to be a front-runner for most cheesy commercial ever.

So, anyway, no matter how the apples & peanut butter combination came about, it's one of my favorites.  Smearing a tart, juicy apple with some good quality natural peanut butter is not only a nutritious snacking option, it is filling, satisfying, quick, and inexpensive.  Why, that's a snacking quint-fecta!

The other day, I was thinking while I was snacking (because I am a multi-tasker.)  Despite the fact that apples and peanut butter blend so well together, it is rare that you ever see this flavor combination used in cookies, cupcakes, pies, and other baked goods.  Why is that?  Does the pairing not translate well to sweet treats such as these?  Well, there was only one way to find out.

 

 

But what to make?  I started to prepare a list of all of the possibilities, which soon became fairly lengthy.  In the end, it was between cupcakes and scones.  The scones won out, since I already make pretty tasty peanut butter and banana scones, and I was afraid that the cupcake would end up being more of an apple muffin with peanut butter buttercream on top.

Because I have a hard time making scones without adorning them with some sort of topping, I decided to drizzle these guys with a sticky-sweet honey glaze, which just kind of soaks into the top.  The scones themselves aren't super sweet, so the glaze was a nice complementary flavor.  Technically, you're supposed to allow the glaze to set before eating the scones, but I kept picking at them.  That's a good sign!

 

 

While these scones probably won't be inducted into my everyday healthy snack rotation, they are definitely up for nomination in the "special occasion" category.  Here are a few extra tips for making these two-great-tastes-that-taste-great-together treats:

• Tart apples really do work better with the peanut butter and honey flavors. Instead of Granny Smith, you could also use Honeycrisp, which start to become available this time of year.
• The scone dough, once shaped into a disk, can be tightly wrapped and frozen for up to 2 weeks or refrigerated overnight. If freezing, thaw the scones overnight in the refrigerator.
• You can also cut the scones into wedges and then wrap and freeze them. That way, you can bake them one at a time!
• If you want to skip the honey glaze, you can use this alternative topping: Before baking, brush the scones with an egg wash (1 egg mixed with 2 tablespoons buttermilk.) Then, sprinkle the tops of the scones with coarse or Turbinado sugar.
• The scones are definitely best eaten the day that they are prepared!

 

Honey-Glazed Peanut Butter & Apple Scones

Makes 12 large scones

Ingredients:

4 cups flour, plus more for dusting

1/2 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

12 ounces cold butter, cubed

1 1/4 cups diced Granny Smith apples

1 1/4 cups buttermilk

3/4 cup peanut butter (crunchy or creamy -- your choice!)

1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar

1/2 cup honey

About 1 tablespoon hot water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 400F degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. In the work bowl of a food processor, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Pulse the mixture several times to blend.

Scatter the butter pieces over the flour mixture and pulse several times, until the mixture resembles a coarse meal (you should still be able to see pieces of butter.) Transfer the mixture to a large bowl and add the apple pieces, tossing to mix.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the buttermilk and the peanut butter until well blended. Add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture, mixing until just combined and the dough begins to stick together. If the dough is still too dry, add more buttermilk, 1 tablespoon at a time.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and shape it into two rounds, each about 1 1/2-inches thick. Cut each round into 6 wedges. Place the wedges onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing a few inches apart.

Bake the scones until they are puffed, golden brown, and firm when touched, 20-23 minutes. Allow the scones to cool for a few minutes, and then transfer them to a wire rack placed over foil or a baking sheet.

Prepare the glaze: In a medium bowl, whisk together the confectioner's sugar and the honey until blended. Add enough hot water to create a smooth, thick glaze. Whisk in the vanilla.

Drizzle the glaze all over the still warm scones. Allow the glaze to set, at least 10 minutes. Enjoy!

 

 

Tate's Bake Shop Giveaway (and their decadent Chocolate Mousse Cake)!

I'll be honest: As an avid baker with a highly discerning sweet tooth, I make it a rule to almost never purchase packaged desserts. Most of the time I'd rather just make them myself. This particularly applies to cookies. I find that your average pre-packaged store-bought cookie tastes, well, pre-packaged and store-bought. Usually there are flavors and textures present that guarantee a long ingredient list full of scary words such as partially hydrogenated and yellow #6, which aren't exactly tempting.

For Tate's Bake Shop cookies, however, I would break my rule. I mean, just look at these guys!

I received an email from the people at Tate's last week, asking me if I would be interested in trying their Whole Wheat Dark Chocolate cookies (uh, yeah!) and doing a review and a giveaway on my site.I don't really do many product reviews and giveaways either, but again, for Tate's I made an exception. Why? Because I'd actually been dying to try these cookies since they had first been introduced.

But wait a minute, I thought that you didn't "do" pre-packaged cookies.

I generally don't, but Tate's Whole Wheat Dark Chocolate cookies had recently won the Gold sofi Award in the Cookie category at the 2011 Summer Fancy Food Show in Washington, D.C., where I had a booth for my granola. These are like the Oscars for specialty foods, and they are tough to win. I had heard the buzz that had been building around this product at the show, and I knew that for a chocolate chip cookie to win the top prize, it had to be darn good.

And they ARE. Darn great, for that matter. Thin. Crisp. Buttery. Caramel-ly (OK, so that's not a word, but you know what I mean.) Rich dark chocolate generously scattered throughout. In a word: Addictive.

I'm much more of a dark chocolate person than a milk chocolate person, and I prefer crisp chocolate chip cookies to soft, so these are perfect for me. Plus, they are all-natural: Dark chocolate chips, white whole wheat flour, butter, sugar, brown sugar, eggs, baking soda, salt, vanilla extract, and water. No scary ingredients whatsoever!

Bonus: As I apprehensively turned over the bag to look at what I was sure would be a diet-destroying calorie count, I was happy to see the number 80, with only 4 grams of fat. Not too bad, especially since I kept finding myself reaching for a piece here and there throughout the day (such as while I type this post.)

Tate's has been kind enough to offer a super-sweet prize package to one of my Peanut Butter and Julie readers, which I have detailed below. In addition, the are offering ALL of my readers an opportunity to try their cookies with an exclusive discount coupon worth 15% off at their e-bakery. Just enter the word "COOKIE" at checkout through October 31.

In order to be considered for the giveaway, please leave a comment including your favorite Halloween candy. I still haven't decided what we are going to give out this year, and I need some ideas :)

You can also earn extra entries if you "like" Tate's Bake Shop on Facebook and/or Twitter. Please let me know in your comment if you have done so! On Saturday, October 15, I will randomly select one lucky winner to receive:

• Not one, but THREE bags of Tate's Bake Shop's Whole Wheat Dark Chocolate Chip cookies
• A signed copy of Kathleen King's fantastic Tate's Bake Shop Cookbook, pictured below

I have owned this cookbook for a few years now, and it has definitely reached the stage where the pages are dusted with flour and the occasional chocolate-covered fingerprint (that's the sign of a good cookbook, right?) This book is filled with recipes for all of the treats that you would hope to find inside a classic American bakery like Tate's. And yes, there is even a recipe for their chocolate chip cookies!

As a preview for the lucky winner, I created one of my favorite recipes from the cookbook, the deceptively simple no-bake Chocolate Mousse Cake. This would be a perfect dessert for entertaining: It can be made in advance, and it's a guaranteed crowd pleaser.

Here are a few extra tips for making this decadent double-chocolate delight:

• The cake can be made in advance and frozen, wrapped tightly, for 3-4 days. It can also be refrigerated overnight.
• Instead of making one large cake, you can make individually sized portions in mini springform pans, or you could even make individual cups, as pictured below.
• If you can't find the chocolate wafer cookies at your grocery store (I sometimes have a hard time), you can always grind up some Oreos instead. Since the Oreos have the cream filling in them to help keep the crust moist, I suggest cutting the amount of butter in the recipe by a few tablespoons.

Tate's Chocolate Mousse Cake

Printable Recipe

Makes one 10-inch round cake or two 7-inch round cakes

Ingredients:

For the Crust

3 cups chocolate wafer crumbs

9 tablespoons salted butter, melted

For the Mousse Filling

2 3/4 cups chopped semisweet or bittersweet chocolate

2 large eggs

4 large eggs, separated

2 cups heavy whipping cream

For the Topping

1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Prepare the crust: Grind the chocolate wafers in a blender or a food processor. Place them in a bowl and add the melted butter. Press the crumb mixture into a 10-inch springform pan, covering the bottom and the sides evenly. Refrigerate the pan.

Prepare the mousse filling: Melt the chocolate in the top of a double-boiler. Remove it from the heat and transfer the melted chocolate to a large bowl. Add the whole eggs and mix them in well using an electric mixer. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, mixing well after each addition and stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary.

In a separate bowl, whip the heavy cream until soft peaks form. In another bowl, beat the egg whites until they are stiff. For the cream and egg whites into the chocolate mixture until completely incorporated. Pour the mixture into the prepared crust and chill it overnight or freeze it for future use.

Make the topping: Whip the heavy cream with the sugar and the vanilla until stiff peaks form.

Loosen the crust on all sides using a sharp knife and remove the sides of the springform pan. Cover the cake evenly with the cream topping one hour before serving and chill.

Spiced Apple Pancakes with Boiled Cider Syrup

Since I spent most of my childhood on the east coast, one of the biggest bummers about living in Las Vegas during the fall season is that, well, we don't really have a fall season.

I mean, sure, we have a few short weeks when you finally, after months and months of oppressive heat, feel like "Ahhhhh! Fall has arrived." The air is a little bit crisper in the morning, we can open our windows at night, and there is even an occasional glimpse of a modified harvest moon (we don't really harvest much here, so it feels odd to give the moon the full harvest credit.)

But no leaves turning spectacular jewel tones. No sweater weather. No roadside stands featuring bushels of freshly picked local McIntosh apples, stacks of pumpkins, and funny-looking gourds.

So when Eric asked me what I would like to do when we traveled to Vermont last week to visit his parents, I replied "Fall-ish stuff." Somehow, this was enough of a response for him to come up with some ideas--after eight years of marriage, he has learned to speak semi-fluent "Julie."

The first part of the plan was to go to a local orchard and pick our own apples. Fall-ish? Check.

The orchard was quintessential small-town New England, complete with handmade signs and a little shop that sold apple pies, turnovers, and various Vermont souvenirs. You did have the option of purchasing already picked apples inside the shop, but c'mon, what fun would that be?

So, we geared up with a fancy-schmancy apple picking device, which was a huge relief for me since I was wearing my too-tight-to-climb-a-tree jeans, and the results wouldn't have been pretty. Funny maybe, but not pretty.

I made Eric model the apple picker for my blog. That's his GQ pose right there.

We ended up with about two large boxes of apples. But the fun wasn't over yet.......

Next on our agenda: Making our own apple cider using an old-fashioned cider press that Eric's parents happened to have. How fun does that sound? And fall-ish?? Is the Pope Catholic??

The process involved placing a few cleaned apples at a time into the top of the press and then crushing them into the bucket below by turning the handle, which took quite a bit of effort when full.

You can see my technique below.....

Once the bucket is full of crushed apples, the apples are pressed with a disk, and the cider comes out of the bottom, into the stainless steel bowl.

Now you can see Eric's technique......

(Notice how my technique is slightly better than Eric's technique.)

While Eric and I exhausted ourselves with the churning and pressing, his mom's sheep watched us with increasing curiosity, and his dad was nice enough to serenade us with his mad fiddlin' skills.

He's really quite talented, especially since he's only been playing for a few years. In fact, in my opinion, if the Zac Brown Band is ever one man down, I think that Bob Hession would be the perfect candidate to fill in.

All in all, I think that we ended up making about 3-4 gallons (maybe more--can't really remember) of cider that day. And wow! Was it fantastic! Store bought apple juice has absolutely nothing on fresh, unfiltered apple cider from the local orchard.

Here you can see Eric enjoying the results of our hard work........and the sheep enjoying the leftover apple mush. No wonder they were so interested in what we were doing.

Unfortunately, we didn't get to bring any cider home to Las Vegas with us, thanks to that no-liquids-in-your-carry-on rule, but it was still great to have the whole fall-ish experience during our stay. After we came home, I still had cider on the brain, so I wanted to create a recipe that somehow incorporated it as well as apples.

I decided to play around with an apple pancake idea, grating lots of fresh tart apples into the batter along with some traditional apple-pie spices. Then for the syrup, I experimented with reducing apple cider to thicken it and concentrate the flavor, then mixing it with equal amounts of maple syrup. I was pretty darn pleased with my results -- the tartness of the reduced cider paired addictively with the super-sweet Vermont maple syrup.

Eric hardly ever eats breakfast, and he had four pancakes. I think that this recipe is a keeper :)

Here are a few extra tips for making this autumn in Vermont-inspired breakfast:

• You can peel the apples for the pancakes if desired, but it's really not necessary, so why bother yourself with the extra work?? Besides, the apple peel contains lots of nutritious fiber!
• For this recipe, I used one Honeycrisp apple and one Granny Smith apple, which ended up being a yummy combination.
• The cider syrup can be prepared several days in advance, covered, and chilled until ready to use.
• For variations on this recipe, you can add some chopped toasted walnuts or pecans to the pancake batter, or you could stir in some chopped dried cranberries or raisins.
• If you are serving a crowd at once, keep the batches of pancakes warm by placing them on a sheet tray in a 250F degree oven until ready to serve.

Apple-Spice Pancakes with Boiled Cider Syrup

Printable Recipe

Makes about 12 medium-sized pancakes

Ingredients:

2 cups fresh apple cider (not from concentrate)

Cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, star anise (optional)

1/2 cup pure maple syrup

1 cup flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 cup light brown sugar, loosely packed

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon ground allspice

2 medium tart apples, coarsely grated (peeling is optional)

2 large eggs

1 cup whole milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Butter for frying the pancakes

Prepare the cider syrup: Place the apple cider in a medium saucepan. Add any of the following to spice the cider (optional): 2 cinnamon sticks, 5 whole cloves, 1 star anise. Bring the cider to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat and allow the cider to simmer, stirring occasionally, until it has thickened slightly and reduced to about 1/2 cup (20-30 minutes.) Remove the spices with a slotted spoon, and stir in the maple syrup. Set the mixture over low heat to keep warm.

Prepare the pancakes: In a large bowl, whisk together both flours, the sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice. Gently squeeze some of the juice out of the grated apples, then add them to the flour mixture, tossing to coat.

In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, and vanilla. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, and mix until combined.

Place a large skillet or a griddle over medium heat and coat it with a thin layer of the butter. Using a small ice cream scoop or a spoon, drop the batter in about 3 tablespoon portions onto the skillet, flattening them out a bit with the back of the spoon.

Cook the pancakes until they are golden brown on one side, about 2 minutes. Carefully flip the pancakes and cook them for another 2-3 minutes, or until golden brown on both sides. Repeat with the remaining batter.

Serve immediately, drizzled with the ridiculously yummy cider syrup!