Supermarket Showdown

Skimming through the circulars in the Sunday paper, I came across a coupon for organic gala apples for $0.99. Ninety nine cents! We go through a lot of apples in this house. Logan and I have oatmeal with apple puree in it almost every morning, I substitute eggs with apple puree while baking, and Andrew eats them constantly. I ripped out the coupon and headed to Shop Rite the next morning. The section containing the organic apples was pretty small, but I was determined to get them all. I started filling up my basket when a woman approached, who evidently had the same idea. I planned on sharing, until she subliminally bumped me with her cart to nudge me out of the way. Bring it on lady. I scooped up the rest as fast as I could as she did the same. I didn't even bother to put them in one of the plastic bags I brought from home. (Yes, I'm one of those nuts who reuses the produce bag). After giving her my most apathetic expression, I checked out with over 10 lbs. of delicious organic galas, and she walked away with maybe 2 lbs.

I'm getting way off the topic of Resolution Kitchen. Anyways, the point of talking about this shopping excursion is to show how convenient apples are in vegan baking. It's easiest to have pureed apples on hand before you start baking to save yourself some time. I pureed nearly every one of these apples and froze them for long term storage.

To start, wash and core the apples. Steam them in a large pot equipped with a steamer. If you don't have a steamer you can boil them, but produce loses more nutrients that way. Once they're soft and easily pierced with a fork, puree them in a blender, adding a little bit of water to thin them slightly. Freeze in BPA free ice cube trays. Each ice cube section holds about 1/8 cup of puree, which is equal to half an egg when they're used in baking. For each egg called for in a recipe, just pop two cubes into a dish and let defrost before adding to your recipe. And don't throw that cooking water out! After steaming or boiling the water is left with a subtle apple flavor. Once it cools down I pour it in a sippy cup for Logan, or a "big kid cup" for myself.