Fall Cooking

It's no big secret how much Mike and I love the fall. From the weather, to the colors, to our annual apple picking trip, and more, it's absolutely our favorite season. I love after we go apple picking all the apple recipes galore I bake up.

As I love to read a lot of food blogs to get all my inspiration from, recently I came across one that featured a recipe swap with other food bloggers. I love reading the posts of all the different recipes with the same theme and I couldn't help but want to join once I saw the latest theme was going to be "fall - apples & pumpkin." This would mean a new fall recipe to try, one I've never come across before. I'm not a big pumpkin person so I did request something with apples if possible. In exchange I submitted my Apple Butter Pound Cake for someone else to try.

When I got my recipe exchange I was so excited to see what it would be. I was given a Bacon and Apple Cheddar Pie from the blog the Jey of Cooking. I was so happy to get something with apples versus pumpkins but at the same time at first I wasn't sure if it was a dessert or meant for a side dish with dinner? I was def intrigued. I would have never thought to make a traditional apple pie with bacon and cheddar, but what a great addition it must be. Funny enough as I was writing this post and I had the recipe up, Mike came by my desk and leaned over to see what I was doing. When he saw the recipe, he said "woah, bacon in an apple pie? that's a weird combination."

Then I started thinking though that we don't really eat much dessert and Mike might not eat a whole pie, and with the cruise coming  up and trying to fit into bathing suits was there a way I could slightly alter it so maybe it wouldn't be a dessert and would be more of a dinner item. I worried a little though that I would stray too much from the idea of the recipe swap but maybe this is the underlying point though too, to see what type of twist someone would put on a recipe. I'm sure either way would be good to make a tried and true recipe or putting your own twist. In the end I decided to make mine slightly different and make it more into a quiche, which could be for breakfast or why not a sweet treat for dinner.

I really did want to try the pie because I bet it is delicious, it just didn't seem practical to make and keep in the house for the time being and I didn't want to waste it. So I decided to keep the flavor profile the same and adapt it into a quiche. I had recently made a low fat caramelized onion, mushroom and gruyere quiche so I used the same pie crust, since it was so easy to make, and then used the egg filling amount.

Apple, Bacon, Cheddar Quiche 
Inspired By & Adapted From: The Jey of Cooking and FoodNetwork

Ingredients
For the crust: (I kept these the same for the crust)
Cooking spray
3/4 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
3 tablespoons cold, lowfat buttermilk

For the Quiche (I used the same proportions for the eggs and milk)
3 large eggs
3 egg whites
1 cup evaporated fat-free milk (not condensed milk)

For the Filling
3 small apples peeled and cubed
¼ cup minced shallots
1 tbsp. butter
¼ cup flour
½ tsp. cinnamon
¼ tsp. nutmeg
Zest of One Lemon
2 tsp brown sugar

For the Topping
1/2 Package Center Cut Bacon
2 tbsp flour
4 tsp brown sugar
2 tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
1 cup Shredded Extra Sharp Cheddar

Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Spray a 9-inch pie dish with cooking spray. To prepare the crust, put the oats, flour and salt in the bowl of a food processor and pulse 3 times to combine. Add the butter and pulse about 12 times, until you get a pebbly course texture. Add the buttermilk and pulse 3 to 5 times more to combine. Form the mixture into a ball and place it between 2 large pieces of waxed paper. Roll out into a circle about 10 inches in diameter. Remove the top sheet of waxed paper. Transfer the crust, still on the other piece of waxed paper to the pie dish, then remove the waxed paper from the top. Press the crust gently into the dish. Bake for 9 minutes, then let cool.

In medium skillet, sauté apples and shallots in butter until soft (about 8-10 minutes). Stir in flour, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Cook the bacon in a skillet over medium heat until crispy.  When bacon is cool to the touch, crumble and set aside. Combine flour, brown sugar and butter cubes in a medium bowl.  Using your fingers, pinch the butter into the flour and sugar until crumbly.  Stir in the bacon and cheese and refrigerate.  (This part can be made up to 2 days before use).

In a medium bowl whisk together the eggs, egg whites and evaporated milk. Toss apples with sugar and lemon zest.  Transfer to the pie crust and pour egg mixture on top and sprinkle bacon mixture on top. Bake until firm and knife comes out clean (about 45-50 minutes).

In the end I think my good intentions of making something unhealthy and trying to turn it into something somewhat healthier probably backfired on me. I might have just been better off making the apple pie. Once I added in some of the sugar, and the butter and the bacon, it probably wasn't all that healthy. However it was a fun fall recipe to make that I never would have made . I'm planning to serve it tomorrow for lunch when everyone comes over for apple picking!