Apple Weekend

You wouldn't think that a half bushel is very many apples...it didn't look like that many.  But I made apple everything last weekend and I still have apples left over.

It all started with a trip to Van Zandt's Orchards.  I felt like I had kind of waited late in the season and was afraid I might have missed the opportunity to get apples.  But when I got there, they still had plenty.  The ones that looked the best to me were the Blushing Wine, which I had never heard of before, but they were definitely pretty.

So when I got home, I knew that I didn't have time to do anything big with them, but I did feel like I needed to make "something" with apples for dessert.  After checking my pantry and fridge, I found a can of crescent rolls and decided that I could whip up a quick version of apple turnovers.

 I started out by peeling coring and slicing 2 apples into 8 wedges each.  I used an apple slicer, but a knife works just as well.

 Next, I put the apples in a small bowl with a couple of teaspoons of lemon juice, just to keep the apples from turning dark

 The next step was to mix 1/4 cup of Splenda with a couple of teaspoons of cinnamon in a small bowl.  After separating the crescent rolls into 8 triangles, I smeared a very light amount of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter onto the dough and then sprinkled each with 1/2 teaspoon of the cinnamon/Splenda mixture.

 I layed two apple slices on each triangle and rolled it up.  I sprayed a cookie sheet and set each turn over on the sheet, spacing them apart.

 Then, I sprinkled the top with an additional 1/2 teaspoon of the cinnamon/Splenda mixture.  I baked them for the time recommended on the crescent roll package; 375 degrees for about 12-13 minutes.








I know that I have mentioned in the past that I have not found a great powdered sugar recipe; and for things that call for large amounts of powdered sugar, that is true.  However, if you are just needing a small amount of powdered sugar, here is a recipe that you mix up and keep and in your pantry.

• 1 c. nonfat dry milk
• 1 c. cornstarch
• 2/3 c. Splenda

Mix in a food processor and keep in a zip bag in your pantry.

Lastly, I just mixed up a few tablespoons of powdered sugar substitute with a teaspoon or so of milk and stirred to make a glaze consistency.  This is one of those things that is really a trial and error.  It doesn't take much liquid to turn powdered sugar into a glaze, so just add a few drops at a time.  Add more if you need to.  If it gets too runny, just add a little more powdered sugar.   Drizzle the glaze over those hot-out-of-the-oven turnovers and...ENJOY this  No Sugar Added   dessert!!

On Saturday, I put the day aside to make some apple cider and apple butter.  Some great sounding recipes had come across my Facebook page and I had decided that I wanted to give some of these a try and see how I could do them using the sugar substitutes.

The recipe for Apple Butter I had decided to try was for a recipe that you make in the crock pot.  That sounded appealing because I thought that I would haven't be standing over it all day stirring; and I was correct.  This recipe came from  skinnytaste.com  This recipe below has been adjusted for the Splenda Blend brown sugar.  Because of the blend, this is a  Low-Sugar  recipe:

12 apples; peeled, cored and chopped
1 c. Splenda
1/2 c. Splenda Blend, brown sugar
2 t. cinnamon
1/4 t. allspice
1/4 t. nutmeg

First you have to peel and chop the apples.  This takes a little while, so I just turned on the TV and watched a little Food Network.

Once you have the apples chopped, add them to your crock pot along with all of the other ingredients.  Mix well.  Cover and cook on low for 10 hours, stirring occasionally.  This is going to take all day, so it's a great time to get lots of other chores done.  I did even leave it for a couple of hours and went grocery shopping.  So you don't have to stay right on top of it.  Just go by every once in a while and stir.

Uncover at the end of the 10 hours and puree it with an immersion blender.  If you don't have one, you can always put it into your regular food processor or blender; just be careful and cover the lid with a towel as hot foods may have a tendency to spew.  Once it is blended smooth, turn the temperature up to high and cook it for another hour or so.

In the meanwhile, heat up your water and sterilize your jars for a Hot Water Bath.  Spoon the apple butter into the jars and leave about a 1/4 inch headspace.  Process in a Hot Water Bath for 10 minutes.  I used 1/2 pint jars, and I got 4 jars and then had a little left over just to keep in the fridge.

Although the process was long, it was very easy and it tastes amazing!  I will definitely make this recipe again.




So, what do you do when you have a bunch of apples and you are waiting around for 10 hours for your apple butter to cook?  You make your own Apple Cider.  I was a little skeptical at first, but decided that I didn't really have anything to lose.

This recipe came from Food Network online. Of course I substituted the Splenda for the sugar, so this makes a  No Sugar Added  recipe.

• 10 apples, quartered
• 3/4 c. Splenda
• 4 T. cinnamon or 4 cinnamon sticks
• 4 T. allspice or 4 T. whole allspice

There is no need to peel or core the apples.  Quarter them and add them to a large pot.  Fill with water to just cover the apples.  Add the Splenda.  If using cinnamon sticks & whole allspice, wrap them in a doubled-up cheesecloth & tie into a bundle.


Add the spices to the pot as well.  Boil on high for 1 hour, uncovered; checking/stirring frequently.  Then, turn down the heat and simmer for 2 hours, covered.

Take off heat and cool.  This may take a while, but definitely let it cool completely, since you will need to be handling the mixture.

Remove the spice pouch, if used, and then mash the mixture with a potato masher until it gets to a pulp consistency.


Pour the pulp into a strainer over a large bowl.  Allow the juice to drain into the bowl.  You may want to "work" the pulp through the strainer with a wooden spoon or spatula.  If you only have a small strainer, you may have to do this in batches.

Once the juice has drained, put remainder of pulp into doubled up cheesecloth and squeeze over bowl.  If you want a clearer liquid, you may want to restrain the cider by putting a cheese cloth into the strainer.  You can store the cider in an airtight container in the fridge for 1 week or you can freeze it.

Just like the apple butter, this recipe wasn't really hard, it just had quite a few steps and takes several hours.  If I did it again, I might try the second straining, in order to use it to drink.  I was principally making this batch to cook with, so the thicker cider was okay with me.


 However, when I was at the grocery store this weekend, I did find  No Sugar Added  Apple Cider, so unless you are just in a mood to make apple cider, or you have a lot of apples to use up, it might be easier to just buy some.


After finishing up the cider, I was getting closer to the hot water bath stage of my apple butter.  I started thinking, that if I was going to heat up the water, I might as well make some apple jam and do the hot water bath at the same time.  After all, I still had apples left.  I remembered the spiced pear jam that I had made a month or so ago, and thought maybe I could make some "apple pie" jam, if I added the cinnamon, cloves and maybe a little nutmeg to the apples.

So, I just made the same recipe that I did for the pear jam, substituting the apples.  I used exactly the same quantities.  The only thing extra I added was just a sprinkle of nutmeg...just because I love nutmeg.  Just like all of the jams you make with Splenda, this is a  No Sugar Added  recipe, because of the natural sugars in the fruit.

 A 10 minute hot water bath and you can see that it came out beautiful in my little jam jars.  I had some the other day on my English muffin and peanut butter for breakfast and it tastes just like apple pie filling.

Well... apple turnovers, apple butter, apple cider, apple pie jam, apple cake and 2 recipes of caramel apple cupcakes... Whew!  It was quite the weekend, but I still have apples left!  The apple pie jam was awesome, so I am thinking another batch is called for; and maybe another batch of apple butter.  Hmmmm... maybe some Christmas gifts.

Jam Oatmeal Cookie Bars

The other day I was preparing some food to take to a colleague and his wife.  He had a knee surgery scheduled and a few days beforehand, his wife broke her leg.  So they were neither one in the position to be cooking.  I made them a couple of casseroles to put into the freezer until needed and since I had the ingredients to make these scrumptious cookie bars, I made them as well.

Unfortunately, I am not sure where I got this recipe.  The one thing I do remember is that according to the recipe you could use any flavor of cake mix and match it up with a great flavor of jam.  Since our sugar-free cake mixes only come in yellow and chocolate, I made a change to the recipe and have added a box of sugar-free Jell-o powder mix to change the flavor of the cake to coordinate with your flavor of jam.

For this recipe, I had a jar of sugar-free raspberry jam.  Smucker's makes several sugar-free flavors and you can get a few flavors in generic form.  As we have talked about before, fruit has natural sugars, but I looked on the label and this is really sugar free jam.  So this is a true  Sugar-Free  recipe.  For the whole recipe, you need the following ingredients:

• sugar-free yellow cake mix
• sugar-free Jell-o powder
• 2 1/2 c. oats
• 3/4 c. (1 1/2 sticks) I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, melted
• 1 jar sugar-free jam

So as I mentioned above, this time I had a jar of sugar-free raspberry jam and some raspberry Jell-o.  In the past, I have made peach, orange and strawberry.  So far, I have always matched my flavors.  But I think some coordinating would be good as well; lime-strawberry, orange-pineapple, strawberry-peach...well, I could go on and on.

 Heat oven to 365 degrees.  Grease or spray a 13 x 9 pan.  Stir together the cake mix, gelatin powder and oats.  Stir in melted butter until mixture is crumbly; just make sure everything is moist.  Measure out 3 cups of the mixture and press it evenly in your pan.

 Spread the entire jar of jam evenly over the mixture base.  Then, sprinkle the remaining crumbly mixture evenly over the top.  Use the palm of your hand and gently press crumbs into the jam.  Bake for 25 minutes or until lightly browned.  Mixture will not look completely done when you remove it from the oven because the jam is so warm.

Cool completely in the pan on a cooling rack.  Cut into squares.  If you have trouble waiting until it is cool...it will taste wonderful... you just won't be able to pick it up and you will have to use a fork... not that there is anything wrong with that...  just sayin'!

Note:  This recipe does make enough for a 9 x 13 pan.  Since I was making for a friend, I divided mine and made half for him and half for us.  That is why you only see a square pan in the picture.

Spiced Pear Jam

Last weekend I went to the farmer's market to get some fresh veggies for a salad.  I had a couple of friends coming over for lunch and I was able to get some fall lettuce, a huge tomato, and some cucumbers.  As I was walking back to my car, I saw a stand selling fruit and they had some pears.  I decided that it might add some crunch to my salad, so I got a small container.  I chopped one up and put it in the salad and we all enjoyed it very much.  After my friends left, I was cleaning up the kitchen and there sat 6 more pears.  I had to decide what to do with them.

Earlier in the summer, I had purchased Taste of Home, Special Edition, Canning & Preserving, Summer 2013 magazine.  I spent quite a bit of time this summer reading the magazine and thinking about and experimenting with some  No Sugar Added  jams and marmalades.  I made some Pina Colada Marmalade, as well as some Peach Jam.  The magazine had great recipes with wonderful combinations of fruit, but of course they were all filled with large amounts of sugar.  So some investigation on the Splenda website and looking at their Splenda recipes of jams and jellies, allowed me to make some generalizations on fruit quantities and proportions to Splenda, liquids, and pectin.

I remembered from my reading that there were a few recipes in my magazine that had pears, so I found my magazine and one of the recipes that caught my attention was Spiced Pear Jam.  It just sounded warm and fall-like.  So I dug out my notes from the summer on quantities and proportions and this is what I came up with.

•  3 or 4 ripe pears, chopped, approx. 4 cups
• 2 T. lemon juice
• 3/4 c. water
• 3 T. low sugar/no sugar pectin
• 1/2 t. cinnamon
• 1/4 t. ground cloves
• 1/2 c. Splenda

Many people believe that homemade jam is difficult to make.  It does have quite a few steps, but they aren't difficult.  You can make a small batch like this one in an hour or less.

Peel, core and finely chop the pears.  Add lemon juice to pears and stir to coat.  This will help keep the pears from turning dark.

Add the pears, the water and the pectin to a medium saucepan. -- A side note about the pectin.  You can find the special Low Sugar / No Sugar pectin in your canning section at the grocery store.  Be sure to use this special pectin when working with sugar substitutes of any kind. -- Stir until well combined.  Add the spices and mix in.  Your heat should be on medium-high.  Bring the mixture to a full, rolling boil.  That means that even when you stir it, it continues to boil.  Set your timer and boil for 1 minute.

Remove your pan from the heat and add in the Splenda.  Stir to combine.  You may notice that the Splenda will have a tendency to clump just a little.  Simply use your spoon to press any clumps up against the side of the pan and they will mix in.

 In the meantime, you want to sterilize your jars.  I use a big canning pot that I got from my husband's grandmother.  It even has an old fashioned rack in the bottom.  I just fill it about 2/3 of the way with water and put it on the stove to heat up before I even start peeling and preparing the fruit.
If you are not great at multi-tasking, you may want to get your water heated up and sterilize your jars before you start.  But once you have your jars sterilized, keep your water hot for your hot water bath at the end.  No need to heat that water up twice!
You don't have to leave the jars in the water very long; just a few minutes and they will be nice and hot.  You can remove them from the water with a pair of tongs and set them on a clean towel to dry.

 Once your jars have dried and your fruit is completely mixed up, ladle your fruit into the jars.  I like to use small 4 oz. jars for a couple of reasons.  First, with my daughter gone to college, I am the only one in my house that eats fruit jam; my husband is a grape jelly kind of guy.  Second, my experience with sugar-free jam, whether you make freezer jam or hot water bath canned jam, is that it tends not to last as long once you open it as those jams made with full sugar.  It will last 2 or 3 weeks, and maybe a little longer.  But with it just being me, I like the small jar so as not to waste.  And besides, those little jars are so cute and they make wonderful gifts!
I use a gravy ladle and I get about 3 scoops in the 4 oz. jar.  Use a funnel and it will be much less messy.  Don't forget to leave 1/4-1/2 inch of head space.

 Before you start filling your jars, put the lids and rings in your pot of hot water to sterilize them.  Once the jars are filled, pull out the lids and place on top of each jar.  Then place a ring and twist on.  You don't have to put it on too tight.  I just got this great little tool you can see in the picture; it's a plastic stick with a magnet on the end.  It really made it easy to pull those lids and rings out of the hot water.  I have used tongs in the past and they work fine, but this was just even easier.









Put the jars onto the rack and lower the jars into the boiling water.  Set the timer for 10 minutes once the water is back to boiling.  After a 10 minute Hot Water Bath, remove the jars and set back onto your towel.
This is my favorite part; waiting for the lids to pop!  When I was young and my mom was canning, she always gave me and my sisters the job of counting the lid pops to make sure that every jar had sealed....I still love counting the pops!

Once the lids have all popped, you just have to let the jars sit until they cool.  Doesn't the jam look pretty in the jars?  And it tastes good too!  There was just about a spoonful left after I filled the jars and I couldn't let it go to waste.  But I certainly can't wait to try some of this on hot biscuit on a lazy Sunday morning!
This recipe made 7 half pint jars.  And oh by the way, don't forget your label.  You can buy a roll of these cute labels in your canning section.  They are especially made to wash off easily when you wash your jars.
You can use this basic method to make other fruits into jams.  I made peach jam this summer and the only thing I did differently was that I didn't add in the cinnamon and cloves.  But you know...that might taste pretty good...peach pie jam....
Now do you see how these ideas just keep popping into my head!