Savory potato bites...

As I said yesterday, we made two items for Jeff to bring in for treat day today - to accompany that pineapple loaf, I also prepared this Praline Apple Bread.

This quick bread is a little unusual as there is no butter or oil to be used in the batter - the main source of fat comes from a full cup of sour cream. When you're mixing the eggs with the sugar and sour cream, be sure to beat the mixture for at least two minutes so you incorporate enough air to add to the lightness of the cake. We of course used pecans in this apple bread, but I added a step to provide an extra boost in the flavor department. You will need a cup of chopped pecans in total, but take a few additional minutes to toast the half cup that will be folded into the batter - this lures out their delicious nutty flavor and helps them retain some texture while sitting in the moist batter. The remaining half cup is sprinkled on top and will be exposed to direct heat, so you'll want to add those in their raw state so they don't burn.

While the praline element to this bread comes in a fairly untraditional form, gild the lily and pour this liquid gold on top. The mixture is simply butter and brown sugar melted down to form a thick, sweet syrup that is drizzled over the golden loaf. Go back and forth in lines across the top so it won't form a giant puddle - you'll also get those luscious drips that slowly wiggle themselves down. As soon as the butter mixture boils for a minute, work quickly as it will begin to set up and be too thick to drizzle (not that I did that intentionally so I could eat a little with a spoon or anything...). I do suggest that you try and keep the apple chunks on the smaller side or they might be a little too firm to enjoy in the bread. While we thought the bread was sweet, we found it was not cloyingly so with the inside being studded with tart Granny Smith apples and the toasted pecans.

The other day I ran out of time to talk about it, but I made these Twice-Baked Potato Bites as a side for dinner and didn't want to forget about them! Think a big twice-baked potato that was shrunk down into little poppable bites!

So the potatoes didn't fall apart, we used sturdy red new potatoes that we first halved. Because these little guys like to roll around, take a sharp knife and slice a very thin layer off the bottom of each potato half - this give them a little base to sit on as they bake. Drizzled with oil and lightly seasoned, the small potatoes are perched on their new flat bottoms and baked until they soften just enough to be easily pierced with a knife. Since you need to handle these pipping hot potatoes, don't forget to set aside enough time for them to cool down a bit. I think it took them about 5 or 10 minutes before they were cool enough for us.

To get the divot and enough flesh out to make the filling, we used a small melon baller to scoop the round out from the center of each half. We then smashed those scoops of potato flesh with tangy sour cream (the amount of sour cream we've used over the past few days was a little crazy!) and onion-y chives. You can either pipe or spoon the now creamy filling back into the potatoes - we just slipped an open star tip into a zip-loc bag and they were assembled in the blink of an eye! Now, at this point, you could stop, cover and refrigerate them for up to a day if you want to prep them ahead of time. If not, they go back into oven for their second bake to warm them through and crisp up the tops a little. Served with additional chives on top for flare, these would be a fun make-ahead appetizer or a tantalizing side for a variety of main dishes.

Recipes
Praline Apple Bread
Twice-Baked Potato Bites