Apple Recipes from Johnny Appleseed Country
Whether you’re looking for the recipe for an apple martini or for Louisa May Alcott’s historically interesting recipe for Apple Buckle, you’ve come to the right place! Here in the land of bushel baskets overflowing with apples (and other fresh produce!), we are fortunate to have everything that it takes to concoct mouth-watering recipes with our own fresh ingredients.

You may not be in your kitchen in Johnny Appleseed Country, but you can take away some memories of your visit here – or sample a preview of our great cookin’

Louisa May Alcott’s Apple Buckle
(serves 6–8)
Fruitlands Museum / Harvard

This recipe has both a literary and cultural history. Louisa May Alcott’s favorite dessert recipe includes baking powder, which wasn’t available until after 1856, when it was introduced to the area. Also of note is that she cooked it on her own free-standing stove, considered a new-fangled invention at the time.

Ingredients: 3 c peeled and sliced apples ¼ tsp cinnamon ¼ tsp nutmeg 3 tbsp maple syrup 3 tbsp lemon juice

For the topping: 1 c flour 1½ tsp baking powder ¼ tsp salt 2 tbsp sugar dash of cinnamon and nutmeg (¼ tsp total) 1 beaten egg 4 tbsp butter

Combine the apples, spices, maple syrup, and lemon juice in an 8 x 8 baking pan. Sift the dry ingredients together, and then add the egg, stirring until the mixture is crumbly. Spoon this over the apples and dot with the butter. Bake at 350º for 30–40 minutes. Serve warm.

Blueberry, Peach or Pear Buckle can be made by substituting other fruits for the apples.

Caramel Apple Tini
Slattery’s Restaurant / Fitchburg

Start with an oversized martini glass (10-oz if you have it). Rim the glass with a piece of fresh lemon and dip the glass into a simple cinnamon-sugar mixture.

Shake long and hard:
1½ oz Crown Royal liquor
1 oz Triple Sec liquor
1½ oz Apple Pucker liquor
2½ oz cranberry juice

Strain this mixture into the martini glass. Garnish with a wedge of your favorite apple (chocolate-dipped if you’re ambitious!).

Braised Red Cabbage & Apples
Sean Patrick’s Restaurant / Lunenburg

1 head red cabbage 10–12 Granny Smith apples 1 lb bacon pinch of caraway seed 6 oz cider vinegar

12 oz brown sugar (1½ c) 6 oz chicken stock (¾ c) salt & pepper to taste  ¼ stick butter (¾ c) raisins (optional)

Core the cabbage, clean off all leaves and slice very thin. Peel, core and cut apples into wedges. Chop bacon. Cook bacon in pan with butter (cook bacon to preference). Keep grease in pan. Add cabbage, cider vinegar and chicken stock. Cover to sweat, 15–20 minutes. Add apples, brown sugar, caraway seed, salt and pepper. Cook all together until apples are soft. If desired, add raisins. Add more sugar or vinegar to taste.

Apple Crisp
(serves 6–8)
Red Apple Farm / Phillipston

This is farmer Al Rose’s grandmother-Carolyn’s recipe, baked down on this fifth-generation family farm. This family recipe goes back to the 1920s when she was a newlywed . . . but it probably goes back a lot further than that.

Line a glass pan with sliced apples 2 rows deep (5 or 6 apples). Season with ½ c sugar and cinnamon mixture. Over this, pour and spread to the edge the following mixture:

1 c sugar
1 c flour
1 tsp baking powder
pinch salt (¼ tsp)
1 egg, broken in

Thoroughly mix to create a dry, gritty texture. Bake in moderate oven, 350º until the apples are done, about 45 minutes. Serve with whipped cream, hard sauce or ice cream.

Ginger Creams
(makes 2–3 dozen)
From a Shaker kitchen

In North Central Massachusetts – Johnny Appleseed Country – the Shakers go back to the late 17th-century, when they created thriving communities known not only for religious devotion and esthetically pleasing crafts, but also a simple, wholesome cooking.

½ c shortening 1 egg, beaten
4 c flour 1 tsp clove
1 c sugar 2 tsp baking soda
½ tsp nutmeg 1 tsp cinnamon
1 c molasses 1 c hot water
2 tsp ginger

Cream shortening, add sugar, and cream well. Add beaten egg and beat well. Sift flour, salt and spices together. Add alternately with the hot water, in which the soda has been dissolved. Chill dough. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto greased cookie sheets, and bake in a moderately hot oven (400°), 8 to 10 minutes.

Keep checking back to this page for more delectable, authentic recipes from Johnny Appleseed Country!