Heartbeat - Apple Bread

In Heartbeat, written by Sharon Creech, we meet Annie. Annie is a high school student who loves running and drawing. At the moment, these are the only things that seem to be going right for her. She is worried about her pregnant mother and her grandfather, who appears to be growing older every day. Her best friend and running partner Max seems to be upset with her all the time as well.

Amidst all the chaos in her personal life, Annie is given an unusual assignment for her art class. She is to draw one apple for 100 days. Watching the apple change as she studies it on a daily basis helps her to come to terms with the other changes in her life. Because the apple was such an important tool for Annie, I decided to bake something containing apples.

To find this recipe, I searched my trusty Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. My family has been baking out of this book for years. Both my mother and my grandmother have one, and I now have one of my own.

I love making quick breads. They are easy to put together and are so moist you don't even need a mixer. I have made zucchini bread, pumpkin bread, and banana bread, but one quick bread I had not tried was apple bread.

I was excited to give this one a try, and I'm glad I did. It's very moist and bursting with apple flavor. I also decided to add a streusel topping which gives the bread a sweet crunch. I will definitely be making this again in the fall.

Apple Bread

Bread
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 egg, beaten
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups peeled, finely shredded apple (about 2 large apples)
1/4 cup cooking oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease the bottom and sides of an 8x4x2 loaf pan and set aside. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, baking powder, and nutmeg. Mix well and make a well in the center of the mixture.

In another medium bowl, combine egg, sugar, shredded apple, and oil. Add apple mixture all at once to the flour mixture. Stir until just moistened. Batter should be lumpy. Spoon into prepared pan.

Streusel Topping
3 tablespoons flour
3 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons butter

Stir together flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Cut in butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle on top of bread batter.

Bake for 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes. Remove from pan. Cool completely on a wire rack. Wrap and store overnight before slicing.

Mockingbird - Oreo Pudding Poke Cake

I recently finished reading Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine. The main character in this book is Caitlyn. She's an eleven year old with Asperger's Syndrome. As if this wouldn't make her day-to-day life challenging enough, Caitlyn's brother was recently killed in a shooting at his middle school. Devon was the only one who really understood Caitlyn. He helped her navigate all the social issues she couldn't understand. Caitlyn is left to figure out tricky social scenes and search for closure on her own, as her father and school counselor can never quite seem to communicate with her. I was really engrossed in this book because it gives a very unique perspective of someone on the Autism spectrum. You are able to see why Caitlyn is not able to pick up on what we consider to be normal social cues and colloquialisms. It also gives insights on why she exhibits what we might consider to be odd behavior.

Caitlyn is an extremely talented artist. When she draws, she only uses pencil. She prefers black and white to color because colors can mix together and make things messy. It becomes difficult to tell where one color begins and another ends. This aspect of black and white stuck out to me throughout the book, so it also came to mind when I was deciding what I wanted to bake. When I think of black and white food, I immediately think of Oreos. So I took to Pinterest and found this recipe for Oreo Puddin' Poke Cake from The Country Cook.

I love the concept of a poke cake. It just makes any cake moist and gooey all the way to the middle. The recipe from The Country Cook called for a box mix, but that is something I could not do. My Grandma would consider that cheating. So I used my favorite chocolate cake recipe and then followed the directions for the pudding topping.

My chocolate cake recipe comes from Althea Markworth. She was a friend of my Grandma's since they were both kids and my mother's godmother. This cake comes together really quickly and can be thrown in the oven in no time. It's a very wet batter, so the cake comes out very moist. My father is not a huge cake fan, but he will eat this until it is gone.

Oreo Pudding Poke Cake

Cake
2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
1 cup margarine
1/4 cup cocoa
1 cup water
1/2 cup buttermilk (1/2 cup regular milk plus 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Put flour and sugar in a large bowl. Put margarine, cocoa, and water in a saucepan and cook to boiling. This could easily be done in the microwave as well. Just cook until the butter is melted. Pour cocoa mixture over the flour and sugar and mix well. Add in buttermilk, eggs, baking soda, and vanilla, mixing after each addition. Pour batter into a greased 9 by 13 pan. Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Pudding
2, 4 ounce packages Jello Oreo cookies n' creme pudding mix
4 cups of milk
Crushed oreos

When the cake is almost finished baking, begin mixing the pudding according to the directions on the package. Mix the powder with the milk for about 2 minutes. Let the pudding set for about 2 minutes. You do not want it to set for the whole 5 minutes so that you are still able to pour it easily.

While the cake is still warm, poke holes in it at about 1 inch intervals using a wooden spoon handle or a straw. Pour the pudding over the cake and smooth it out evenly. Put the cake in the refrigerator until it is completely cooled.

Crush about one row of Oreos from the package. I do not have a food processor, so I put them in a bag and crushed them with a rolling pin. Spread the crushed cookies over the top of the cake.

Keep finished cake refrigerated.