September is one of my favorite months of the year. For starters, I was born in September. But there has always been something about the month where summer and autumn collide that I enjoy. From plucking fresh apples to football to playoff baseball to back to school, September just has a lot to offer.
That’s why I wrote the article on using apples in your pizzeria kitchen. A wistful nostalgia invades my brain when I think of September in my youth. One memory I hold dear is of an apple tree behind my grandparents’ house. Each fall I’d pick those small, firm and deliciously juicy apples and listen to the crunch as I bit into them. I can still smell them. I can still see the white inner flesh and taste the somewhat bitter skin. I’d pull them from the tree and bite into them immediately, feeling the warmth of the sun on them as the fruit touched my lips.
Those simple days shaped me, and I find myself yearning for them.
Jeremy White, Editor in Chief, Pizza Today Magazine
As wholesome and American as apple pie seems to be, that’s but one way to make use of the fruit in a professional kitchen. We all love a good apple fritter, after all, and I’m a sucker for apple butter. But in your pizzeria, one of the best ways to utilize the item is with a dessert pizza. I still remember an apple pie pizza I had in Ohio 20 years ago. The apples were shaved thinly and cooked with butter, cinnamon, nutmeg and brown sugar — with a hint of bourbon. The resulting sauce, along with cream, was used as the base and topped with the cooked apples. Crunchy oats and a caramel drizzle finished off the pizza, and my mouth waters thinking about it two decades later. I’ve tried my best to recreate it with the recipe offered in the article. Give it a try in your kitchen. Tweak it to your likes and run it as a weekly special later this month and let me know how it goes!
NATIONAL PIZZA MONTH: Before I let you go, dear reader, I’d be remiss if I didn’t remind you that next month is National Pizza Month. We have a detailed NPM playbook that you want to bookmark and refer to often as you plan how you’ll celebrate the month in your pizzeria. This is an opportunity to get a jumpstart
Best,
Jeremy White
Editor In Chief
