You are the apple of my eye!
As promised, today brings delicious homemade apple crisp and apple dumplings for all, made from our freshly hand-picked, gorgeous Empire apples!
Both recipes were super easy and turned out really really yummy, even though I cut down the original amounts of sugar and butter by a lot (Paula Dean wouldn’t approve, but I prefer my desserts not too sweet, buttery, or artery-clogging :P ). I forgot to scavenge for brown sugar, so the apple crisp topping didn’t turn brown and pretty, but still tasted pretty amazing :D The apple dumplings also weren’t the most attractive looking things in the world but definitely made up for their ugliness with extra yumminess! Both desserts were excellent hot out of the oven - not too sweet/cloying with the perfect balance of soft/tender and crunchy/crispy. The fresh, crisp apples definitely made a difference (or maybe it’s all just in my head…), along with elbow grease and love from Lisa, Joan, and me :) The only thing missing was ice cream on top!
Apple Crisp (adapted from Apple Crisp)
8 large apples, peeled and sliced
1 c. flour
1 c. brown sugar
1 c. oats
1/4 c. butter, softened
Preheat oven to 375°F.
Spread apple slices evenly across the bottom of a large baking dish.
Mix together flour, brown sugar, and oats in a medium bowl. Using a fork, smush the butter in and mix well. Spoon over the apple slices evenly.
Bake at 375°F for 30-45 minutes, until the apples are tender but not mushy and topping is browned and crunchy.
Apple Dumplings (adapted from Country Apple Dumplings)
2 large apples, peeled and sliced into 8 wedges per apple
1 can (8 rolls) refrigerated crescent roll dough
1/2 c. butter
1/2 c. sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 c. Sprite (yep, Sprite!)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Unroll the crescent roll dough and separate into triangles. Tear each triangle in half and wrap around one apple slice, covering it completely. Pinch to seal and place in a large, lightly greased baking dish.
In a saucepan, melt butter on low heat. Stir in sugar and cinnamon until dissolved. Pour mixture and Sprite over the apple dumplings.
Bake for 35 to 45 minutes or until golden brown on tops.
**Update 11/18/09: Alisa from Foodista wrote me a very kind email this morning inviting me to try out Foodista - The Cooking Encyclopedia everyone can edit! It’s basically a Wikipedia for recipes and other food related recipes - I’m interested in seeing whether or not the Wiki concept will work for recipes, given so many different approaches to cooking and food preferences among all the foodies out there. I’ve also been trying to get more involved in the online foodie community - recently joined Foodie Blogroll and Foodbuzz as a featured publisher - so I’m really looking forward to contributing to Foodista! Thanks for the invite, Alisa, and here’s my first widget, linking to an apple-walnut crisp recipe on Foodista - looks tasty!
