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Applesauce can be a versatile ingredient

Recipe: Fruit substitutes for milk in old-fashioned pancakes

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Debbie Arrington PUBLISHED FEB 16, 2020

Applesauce makes a healthy substitute for milk in the pancakes. (Photos: Debbie Arrington)

Apples are keepers. Harvested in fall, they continue to stay firm (and ripe) while in cold storage for months.

With a large Granny Smith apple tree, I still have "fresh" home-grown apples in the fridge -- plus a lot of applesauce. As the fruit starts to soften, I cook it into sauce, giving me more options of how to use up my apples. (And I can freeze the sauce.)

Of course, applesauce is great as a side dish on its own, but it's also a versatile ingredient in baked goods. (I use it as a substitute for milk or sour cream in muffins and quick breads.)

And it makes delicious pancakes. They smell like apples on the griddle.

Applesauce pancakes
Makes about 8 (5-inch) pancakes

Ingredients:

1 cup flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup applesauce
1 egg or 1 egg substitute
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Butter or margarine for griddle (about 1 tablespoon)

Instructions:

Preheat griddle. In a large bowl, sift together dry ingredients.

In another bowl or large mixing cup, mix together applesauce and egg or egg substitute until blended.
Gradually add applesauce mixture to dry ingredients. Mix in oil. Batter should be spoonable, not stiff. If needed, add 1/4 cup more applesauce.

Butter a hot griddle. Drop batter by large spoonfuls onto griddle. Cook until little bubbles start to appear in the surface (about 3-4 minutes). Turn pancakes and cook until done.

Serve warm with butter, margarine, syrup or powdered sugar.

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RECIPE

A recipe for preparing delicious meals from the bounty of the garden.

Keywords:

apples recipe recipes baking gardening Sacramento cooking backyard produce produce management seasonal cooking

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Food in My Back Yard Series

April 22: Should you stock up on fertilizer? (Yes!)

April 15: Grow culinary herbs in containers

April 8: When to plant summer vegetables

April 1: Don't be fooled by these garden myths

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March 18: Time to give vegetable seedlings some more space

March 11: Ways to win the fight against weeds

March 4: Potatoes from the garden

Feb. 25: Plant a fruit tree now -- for later

Feb. 18: How to squeeze more food into less space

Feb. 11: When to plant? Consider staggering your transplants

Feb. 4: Starting in seed starting

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Garden Checklist for week of April 27

Once the clouds clear, get to work. Spring growth is in high gear.

* Set out tomato, pepper and eggplant transplants.

* From seed, plant beans, beets, cantaloupes, carrots, corn, cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, radishes and squash. Plant onion sets.

* In the flower garden, plant seeds for asters, cosmos, celosia, marigolds, salvia, sunflowers and zinnias. Transplant petunias, zinnias, geraniums and other summer bloomers.

* Plant perennials and dahlia tubers for summer bloom. Late April is about the last chance to plant summer bulbs, such as gladiolus and tuberous begonias.

* Transplant lettuce and cabbage seedlings.

* Weed, weed, weed! Don’t let unwanted plants go to seed.

* April is the last chance to plant citrus trees such as dwarf orange, lemon and kumquat. These trees also look good in landscaping and provide fresh fruit in winter.

* Feed citrus trees with a low dose of balanced fertilizer (such as 10-10-10) during bloom to help set fruit. Keep an eye out for ants.

* Apply slow-release fertilizer to the lawn.

* Thoroughly clean debris from the bottom of outdoor ponds or fountains.

* Start thinning fruit that's formed on apple and stone fruit trees -- you'll get larger fruit at harvest (and avoid limb breakage) if some is thinned now. The UC recommendation is to thin fruit when it is about 3/4 of an inch in diameter. Peaches and nectarines should be thinned to about 6 inches apart; smaller fruit such as plums and pluots can be about 4 inches apart. Apricots can be left at 3 inches apart. Apples and pears should be thinned to one fruit per cluster of flowers, 6 to 8 inches apart.

* Azaleas and camellias looking a little yellow? If leaves are turning yellow between the veins, give them a boost with chelated iron.

* Trim dead flowers but not leaves from spring-flowering bulbs such as daffodils and tulips. Those leaves gather energy to create next year's flowers. Also, give the bulbs a fertilizer boost after bloom.

* Pinch chrysanthemums back to 12 inches for fall flowers. Cut old stems to the ground.

* Mulch around plants to conserve moisture and control weeds.

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