Crisp, just-picked apples are one of the things I relish most in the fall. I love them as much raw—eaten out of hand, sliced and spread with nut butter, or diced into salads—as I do cooked —baked into fragrant desserts or sauteed in savory main dishes. This week I thought I’d highlight a few of my favorite ways to incorporate apples into breakfast and brunch. Each recipe here will fill your kitchen with cozy, autumnal fragrance, and leave you feeling content and well nourished all morning. Enjoy!
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Apple Cinnamon Baked Oatmeal
Photo by Quentin Bacon
This baked oatmeal is like giving your everyday hot cereal the fairy-godmother treatment, turning its basic ingredients– oats, fruit, nuts and milk– almost magically, into an apple cake-like treat that is spiked with cinnamon, maple and vanilla and studded with walnuts. It keeps well in the refrigerator so you can reheat it to have warm, satisfying breakfasts ready throughout the week.
Buckwheat Crepes With Sauteed Apples
Photo by Deb Lindsey for The Washington Post
Buckwheat flour gives these crepes a deeply nutty flavor, intriguing dark color and whole-grain nutrition. Stuffed with warmly spiced, maple-sweetened sauteed apples, these buckwheat crepes are the perfect breakfast for an autumn weekend.
Savory Carrot-Apple Pancakes With Ginger
Photo by Laura Chase de Formigny and food styling by Lisa Cherkasky; for The Washington Post
In these tender apple pancakes, mounds of shredded sweet carrot and bright green apple along with a zing of fresh ginger, are bound into tender, skillet cakes with just enough egg and whole grain flour to hold them together in pancake form. Served dolloped with yogurt and sprinkled with a crunch of toasted walnuts — no syrup needed — they make for a fabulous breakfast or brunch, but their more savory essence means they also fit right in for lunch or dinner.
What a great combination Ellie! When I saw ginger as an ingredient combined with a tart apple my taste buds zinged - I may leave out
The carrots, gotta think about it, just a personal preference.