The Ellwanger Estate

Pears are the sig­na­ture fruit at the Ell­wanger Estate

PEAR BREAD
Cooks.com

• 1 c. veg­etable oil
• 2 c. gran­u­lated sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 1/2 c. peeled and chopped fresh pears (4 med.)
• 1 c. chopped pecans
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 3 c. all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. bak­ing soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg

Pre­heat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium mix­ing bowl, com­bine oil, sugar and eggs, blend­ing well. Stir in pears, pecans and vanilla. In another bowl,combine remain­ing ingre­di­ents. Stir dry ingre­di­ents into pear mix­ture, pour the bat­ter into two greased 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 x 2 3/4 inch loaf pans, or four greased pint can­ning jars 40 min­utes, or until a tooth­pick inserted in the mid­dle comes out clean.

Cool loaves 10 min­utes, then remove from pans and cool on the wire racks. Bread baked in can­ning jars must be cooled com­pletely before cap­ping to pre­vent bac­te­r­ial growth. NOTE: This is not a can­ning tech­nique; bread must be frozen or eaten fresh.

Makes Two loaves or four jars or bread.

GERMAN APPLE PANCAKES
The Scott family

Two secrets to this dish: the true cook­ing apple and the cast-iron skillet.

• 3 Granny Smith apples
• 1/8 salt
• 2 t cinnamon
• C but­ter­milk
• C sugar
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten
• C packed light brown sugar
• 2 T oil
• C flour
• 5 T unsalted butter
• 1 t bak­ing powder

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Very lightly oil a 10-inch well-seasoned cast iron or enam­eled cast iron skil­let with sloped sides. Peel, core and cut the apples into thin slices. Mix with cin­na­mon and sug­ars in a bowl. Stir in but­ter­milk, eggs and oil just until dry ingre­di­ents are moist; do not
over mix. Melt but­ter in a pre­pared skil­let over medium heat. Add apple mix­ture (about 5 min­utes). Gen­tly pour flour-egg bat­ter over the apples. Bake until the edges are golden, the apples ten­der, and the pan­cake puffed, 25–35 min­utes. Serve immediately.

Serves: 4
Prep time: 10 minutes

Spicy Sausage & Veg­etable Frit­tata Recipe
By Woman’s Day Kitchen from Woman’s Day

INGREDIENTS

• 1 Tbsp oil
• 8 oz hot Ital­ian turkey sausage, removed from casings
• 1 medium zuc­chini, thinly sliced
• 1 large red or green bell pep­per, or 1/2 of each, diced
• 8 large eggs
• 4 oz part-skim moz­zarella, shred­ded (1 cup)

PREPARATION
1. Heat oil in a large non­stick skil­let over medium heat. Add sausage and cook, break­ing up chunks, 2 to 3 min­utes until no longer pink.

2. Add zuc­chini and bell pep­per, and saute 5 min­utes or until veg­eta­bles are
tender.

3. Whisk eggs in a large bowl until well com­bined. Stir in cheese. Pour over sausage mix­ture in skil­let and stir gen­tly to dis­trib­ute eggs evenly.

4. Heat broiler. While broiler heats, cook frit­tata 4 to 6 min­utes until set on bot­tom and sides (eggs will be runny in center).

5. Broil 4 to 6 in. from heat source 2 min­utes or until firm in cen­ter. (If the skil­let han­dle is plas­tic or wood, wrap it in a dou­ble layer of foil to pro­tect it from scorching.)

Spiced Banana-Walnut Muffins
Recipe cre­ated by Edward Espe Brown

Warm, rich, and sub­tly spiced, these muffins are ther­apy in a bak­ing tin. Ripe bananas and apple sauce give them loads of fla­vor while keep­ing fat to a minimum.

This recipe uses apple­sauce in place of some of the but­ter or oil to make these muffins a health­ier treat. For the rich­est fla­vor, use overripe bananas.

Ingre­di­ents: Serves 6

• 1 cup whole wheat or all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. bak­ing soda
• 1/2 tsp. ground cardamom
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) soft­ened but­ter or veg­etable oil
• 1 cup (2 to 3 whole) very ripe mashed bananas
• 1/4 cup unsweet­ened applesauce
• 1/2 tsp. orange zest
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

Pre­heat oven to 350. Line a stan­dard 6-muffin tin with paper lin­ers or grease well; set aside.

Put flour, bak­ing soda, car­damom, cin­na­mon, nut­meg, and salt into a large bowl; set aside. Put sugar and but­ter or oil into a sec­ond large bowl and beat with an elec­tric mixer until well com­bined. Add bananas, applesauce, zest, vanilla, and egg to the sugar-butter mix­ture, and beat again until com­bined. Add flour mix­ture to banana mix­ture in three parts, stir­ring well after each addi­tion; fold in walnuts.

Spoon bat­ter into pre­pared tin; bake until a tooth­pick inserted in the cen­ter of a muf­fin comes out clean, about 25 min­utes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Recipe adapted from The Tas­sa­jara Bread Book , by Edward Espe Brown, copyright C 1995 (with per­mis­sion from Shamb­hala Pub­li­ca­tions, Inc.)