Fall Food

And just like that it happened.

Cooler weather blew into Austin, Texas.

After experiencing the hottest summer ever recorded in Austin, the weather broke. The welcomed change in temperature was like in-laws who had overstayed their welcome, finally departing. The residents of the ATX are now experiencing wonderfully cooler nights and somewhat cooler days.

Nothing short of wonderful.

Talking about the weather, Beth tells me good old, reliable Michigan is heading into winter.

The capital city (Lansing) has already experienced highs in the 50’s with lows in the incredible low 40’s. The city has even experienced the 30s. By Halloween, they will surely see (feel?) the first freeze.

With those temps, the outfit of the day consists of turtlenecks, thick jeans, and heavy sweaters. “Sweater weather,” indeed!

A few days ago, during my daily morning call with Beth, the weather was top of mind. And for us when we start weather talk, it’s just a hop, skip, and a jump to food talk.

Favorite fall foods? For Beth nothing says fall has come to Michigan than a trip to Uncle John’s Cider Mill in St. John’s Michigan. She makes the annual sojourn every fall to the farm to enjoy the great outdoors and the delicious, pressed cider, glazed donuts, and jars of homemade apple butter.

She also finds it hard during the fall to turn down hearty home-cooked meals, heavy on the roasted meats and veggies served with a savory gravy.

For me, when the temperature becomes temperate, I crave big breakfast meals served late in the morning after a sleep in. A wonderful egg dish next to well-seasoned grits, turkey sausage, with biscuits and southern fried apples, darkly caramelized from brown sugar and butter. With the addition of cups of coffee, it’s the kind of meal that keeps you full all day.

After all of this food talk, it’s just another hop skip and a jump to deciding to actually cook some of our favorite fall foods.

On this day Beth decided to make a cream soup she’d been dying to try. Loaded with roasted sweet potatoes and chicken broth, warm spices, and big splashes of heavy cream it seems perfect to enjoy on a fall afternoon.

And it comes as no surprise I decided to bake. I was in the mood for loaves of homemade bread. I pulled down my favorite bread cookbook and found a seeded loaf that seemed interesting.

So here we go. Here’s Beth’s recipe for Cream of Sweet Potato Soup

INGREDIENTS

3 large, sweet potatoes

14 ounces low-sodium chicken broth

¼ cup brown sugar, or more to taste

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

Black pepper to taste

1/3 cup heavy cream

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F

Bake sweet potatoes in a preheated oven until soft, about 90 minutes. Note: The original recipe says you can microwave the potatoes instead of using your oven, but roasting the potatoes in the oven gives the soup the best flavor profile.

Remove the potatoes from the oven and let cool. Once the potatoes are cool, peel the sweet potatoes and place the flesh in a blender.

Puree in batches with the chicken broth, using enough broth so it blends smoothly.

Transfer the pureed mixture to a large saucepan.

Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low.

Stir in sugar, salt, nutmeg, black pepper, and cayenne pepper.

Cover and let simmer for 10 minutes.

Remove from heat and stir in cream. Enjoy!

And to go with the homemade soup here’s a quick yeasted loaf you’ll love!

THREE SEED BREAD

INGREDIENTS

¼ cup sunflower seeds

¼ cup pumpkin seeds

¼ cup sesame seeds

4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons kosher salt

2 teaspoons sugar

2 ¼ teaspoons instant yeast

2 cups lukewarm water

¼ cup neutral oil

Softened butter for greasing the baking bowls

In a large skillet over medium heat, toast the seeds until they are fragrant and lightly golden brown, and begin to pop (5-7 minutes) Take off the heat and let cool, about 10 minutes.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, sugar and instant yeast. Add the toasted seeds and whisk to combine. Add the water, followed by the oil. Using a rubber spatula, mix until the liquid is absorbed, and the ingredients form a sticky dough ball. Cover the bowl with a damp towel or plastic wrap and set aside in a warm spot to rise for 1-1/2 hours, until the dough has doubled in bulk.

Set rack in the middle of the oven and preheat oven to 425F. Grease two 1-quart oven-safe bowls with the softened butter – be generous. Using two forks, deflate the dough by releasing it from the sides of the bowl and pulling it toward the center. Rotate the bowl quarter turn as you deflate, turning the mass into a rough ball.

Using two forks and working from the center out, separate the dough into two equal pieces. Use the forks to lift each half of dough into a prepared bowl. If the dough is too wet to transfer with forks, lightly grease your hands with butter or oil, then transfer each half to a bowl. Do not cover the bowls. Let the dough rise on the countertop near the oven (or other warm, draft-free spot) for 10 to 20 minutes, until the top of the dough just crowns the rims of the bowls.

Transfer the bowls to the oven and bake for 15 minutes at 425F. Reduce the heat to 375F and bake for 17 to 20 minutes more until golden all around. Remove the bowls from the oven and turn the loaves out onto cooling racks. If the loaves look pale, return them to their bowls and bake for 5 minutes longer.

Let the loaves cool for 15 minutes before cutting.

NOTE: I truly urge you to follow the link for the full recipe. You’ll also see success tips for punching down the dough, transferring the dough to the greased bowls for baking, etc.

You’re also going to notice some complications on her site around these loaves. It’s all around the seeds. But don’t let this crazy confusion derail you from trying this recipe. It’s really, really easy to put together and the results are well worth your effort. The finished loaves are delicious.

For Beth and me, Autumn is our favorite season. We plan on enjoying every beautiful moment of it.

We hope that’s in your plans as well.