How can it be the end of October already?  Fall is my absolute favorite baking season, and I feel like I have hardly scratched the service.  I cannot wait to get to the farmer’s market this weekend, and catch up on some much needed kitchen time.  I love travelling to new places, but boy it is good to get home.  I am in between cities right now, and I swear I could write an entire blog post about the food I have experienced this week – but it is apple time…

My husband has really been trying to stay away from dairy, and I have been encouraging it.  It is pretty easy to cook without dairy – and if I am making something with cheese, I just put cheese on part of it.  Therefore everyone is happy.  Baking is a different story though, and I am slowly learning what I can use to substitute with.  Milk and buttermilk is pretty easy – I can almost always use coconut milk, and the final product actually tastes even better – butter is a different story though.

My neighbors brought us a bunch of apples from their trees on the peninsula – and they were calling me to bake something with. I instantly thought of a crisp – and I had to make it dairy free.  I found this simple recipe on Bon Appetit online but was on a quest.  I found these earth balance sticks – and decided to give it a try.  They are not a great substitute for butter when making a cake – oil is much better for that, but I thought for a crisp they might just do the trick.  I was right – this crisp was amazing.  I shared it with my neighbors, and everyone agreed.  You would never have known that this was made without butter.  The topping was extremely simple – and gave it a nice sweet crisp bite – if you want, you could definitely add some oats for additional texture but I didn’t think it needed it.

OK – 8 days left in October and I am going to make the most of it…stay tuned!