Golden Apple Oatmeal Biscuits, etc.

I spent the better part of today cooking various items. After a trip to the market and a store and picking up my dress for tomorrow, I set out to cook a delicious lunch for myself. Well, I didn't eat the intended results until about 6:30, but cooking was so good at occupying me it was ok.

I made the green fig pie, the recipe back from almost two months ago, with some frozen veggies thrown in (and too much mustard), and some pinto beans that I had left over from the stew (I figured out how to get them soft, and now they are delicious), and some golden apple juice.

Golden apples aren't apples, and they are definitely not golden-delicious apples, so finding a recipe was really hard. Turns out their real real name is Spondias mombin, and they're called different things around the West Indies and Americas. So if you want to use them for these recipes, find out what they're called, whether it's hog plum, Spanish plum, jocote, or those-things-that-aren't-apples-and-they-in-fact-look-like-(but-taste-nothing-at-all-like)-potatoes-so-why-would-you-call-them-apples.

For both of these recipes I was pretty much just making them up as I went along, with the limited ingredients I already had in my kitchen (remember, I just moved in!). They came out great, though, so I hope you try them out too!

Golden Apple Juice
Ingredients
4 ripe golden apples
5 1/2 cups water (you may want to use less; I like my juice kind of weak)
1/2 cup brown sugar (you may want to use more; I don't like juices really sweet)

Directions
1. Cut sections off golden apples however possible. Peel skin off sections, put the pulp in a blender. Try to cut out the meat from the spines around the seed, too. After one you get the hang of it. Discard peels & seeds (or eat the peels, but they're pretty sour).
2. Blend by first pulsing a few times so all the meat starts breaking down. Then blend at high speeds to make it a very thick liquid. Add 1/2 cup water, blend a little more.
3. To press the juice: Pour a little of the juice into a strainer over a 1 liter pitcher. Use a spoon to stir, then press, out the watery juice from the pulp. Each pouring takes a few minutes to get nearly all the water out. Put the left over pulp in a bowl or saucepan and set aside (you can use this for the next recipe!).
4. Add water and sugar to pitcher, stir well. Stir the juice in the pitcher before pouring. Chill, serve over ice.

Golden Apple* Oatmeal Biscuits
(this recipe only makes 1 batch of 15 biscuits)
Ingredients
Dough:
3 cups flour
1 cup quick cook oatmeal (actually steel cut oats would probably be better)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 Tbsp honey
3 Tbsp margarine
1/4 cup evaporated milk

Spread:
1/2 cup golden apple* pulp
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp evaporated milk
(next time I'll probably add just a little flour to thicken it up)

*Since golden apples are probably hard to find in the States, I think apricots are the closest approximation for taste. Either press out juice from 1lb fresh apricots using the method described above, or blend dried unsweetened apricots to use the pulp.

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 deg Farenheit. Combine all dough ingredients in a medium mixing bowl. It will be pretty sticky, thick, and heavy.
2. On a nonstick or greased cookie sheet put large rounded drops of dough. Make a wide, shallow depression in each one.
3. Heat spread ingredients in a saucepan over low-medium heat, stirring constantly, about 10 minutes.
4. Spoon about 1 tsp of the heated spread into the depression in each biscuit (more if you can). Bake on middle rack 17-23 minutes. The edges of the bottoms and any little parts that stick out will be golden brown.
5. Brush with margarine or butter immediately after removing from oven. These would be great served with milk or for breakfast. No need for jam, it's already on there!

Of course, if you want just the biscuits by themselves, they're pretty tasty and a little (but not too) sweet. If you want the biscuits lighter, add a little yeast or more baking powder and let it set for a while before putting it on the cookie sheet.

So this was my extremely satisfying dinner: