In this issue:

• Letter from the editor

• Take your pick

• Let’s start with dessert

• Getting sauced for dinner

• Quick dinner ideas

• Unexpected treats

• To this colorful season

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Celebrating the sweet crunch of the season

Have you ever eaten an apple dumpling sold at the orchard where the fruit was grown? I have, and it’s a sentimental part of my childhood. And so were the apple butter donuts.

Growing up on the East Coast, autumn meant weekend family drives into Virginia’s apple country. We’d wind our way toward the Blue Ridge Mountains, past old farmhouses, weathered barns, and orchards heavy with fruit, until we reached The Apple House.

We always came home with apples, a jug of cider, and warm apple butter donuts in a brown paper bag that rarely survived the drive back. I was thrilled to find out that you can order their donuts online between October and April. I'm anxiously awaiting my delivery.

This issue celebrates autumn’s most versatile fruit, along with recipes for savory dinners, desserts, and simple snacks.

And if you happen upon a country store selling fresh apple butter donuts, do stop and have one for me. Some traditions are simply too good to pass by.

Pam Miller
Editor-in-Chief

Take your pick

Thousands of apple varieties exist worldwide, but only a fraction appear regularly in American supermarkets. Some are wonderfully crisp and sweet. Others are so sour they make you pucker. Still others are prized less for eating out of hand than for what happens when they're exposed to heat. And that’s where the secret to cooking with apples is hidden.

Let’s start with dessert

Apple dumplings: This recipe comes close to the dumplings at Mom’s Apple Pie at Hill High, the Virginia bakery from my childhood. They do one thing I haven’t found in other recipes: they stuff the core with extra pie crust dough, and I highly recommend you do the same.

Apple Cake: In fourth grade, our teacher made us a deal: if everyone got a perfect score on the spelling test, she’d make us a cake. We did it, and this cake comes close to what I remember… but nothing tastes as sweet as victory.

No-Churn Apple Pie Ice Cream: This brilliant recipe uses three large slices of apple pie to make surprisingly addictive ice cream. It’s an easy way to use up a few leftover slices… or whenever the mood strikes you.

Get sauced for dinner

Apples can transform an ordinary meal into a sensation by adding a bright, distinctive note to sauces, balancing richness with a touch of sweetness. Here are a few favorites:

Savory Apple-Mustard Sauce: Sharp, tangy mustard meets sweet apple, a perfect match for rich meats like roasted pork loin, pan-seared duck breast, or thick-cut pork chops.

Apple-Infused Barbecue Sauce: Quick to make and beautifully caramelized, whether you cook your meat low and slow or char it over high heat. Try it on the usual suspects, brush it onto turkey meatloaf, or toss it with shredded rotisserie chicken. 

And speaking of barbecue, this creamy Apple Coleslaw is the perfect companion, bursting with flavor and ready in minutes.

Cider Cream Reduction: Silky and elegant, made for seared scallops, pork tenderloin medallions, wild mushroom ravioli, or a savory butternut squash tart.

Applesauce: For the best homemade batch, mix sweet and tart varieties for depth without added sugar. Softer apples like McIntosh cook down into a silky purée, while firmer ones like Honeycrisp stay chunky. Leave the skins on for extra nutrients and a rosy hue, but skip mealy varieties like Red Delicious, which can turn grainy.

Quick dinner ideas

Let an apple or two turn you into a culinary magician:

Apple cider-smothered chicken, an easy one-pot dinner.

Autumn sausage veggie sheet pan dinner, quick to put together, faster to clean up.

Pork chops with apples and cider, a complex twist on a classic.

Curried sautéed apples are great as a bed for roasted chicken or pork.

Unexpected delights

Honey-apple baked brie with fried sage: Elegance made easy, perfect for the holidays or to impress your guests.

Grilled cheese with apples and apple butter: With melty cheddar mingling with sweet-tart apples and warmly spiced apple butter, this grilled sandwich elevates lunch to a spectacular level.

Roasted apple and winter squash soup: Autumn in a bowl, this heartwarming soup comes together quickly from seasonal ingredients and aromatics.

My shaved apple salad

With a grateful nod to the Italian Embassy, Washington, D.C.

Vary the amount of ingredients based on how many servings are needed:

1. Fry prosciutto in a pan and drain on a paper towel. 

2. Toss your favorite lettuce with crumbled gorgonzola, toasted walnuts, and champagne vinaigrette and divide onto salad plates. 

3. Using a mandoline or vegetable peeler, thinly slice a Granny Smith, Cosmic Crisp, or Honeycrisp apple and mound some onto each salad. 

4. Crumble the prosciutto onto each salad. Buon appetito!

To this colorful season

Perhaps the best thing about apples is how closely they're tied to the season.

We can buy them year-round, but there's something special about an apple picked at an orchard in October.

Maybe it's the crisp air, the vibrant leaves, or the joy of bringing home local produce. Maybe it's the chance to try a variety you've never heard of or to rediscover one you haven't tasted since childhood.

Whatever the reason, apple season is worth celebrating.

So explore a local orchard or farmers' market and put a few of those apples to work in the kitchen.

And should your travels take you past a roadside market selling warm apple butter donuts, you already know what to do.

_{We sometimes use AI for proofreading and research.}