it's apple season!

Fall harvest is the best time for baking....especially when apple season rolls around. This weekend, my fiancé, Bill and I went to our favorite apple orchard with two of our good friends, Mike and Nicole. We’ve been road tripping to Warwick Valley Winery for the last few years, but due to the seriously hot summer we had on the East Coast, most apples are ready for picking now, so we bumped our usual October trip.

After wine tasting and a late lunch, we left with many pounds of apples and a couple bottles of delicious wine. After a yummy dinner at Nicole’s apartment that night, I used a few apples to make a quick Caramel Apple Crisp (it was 11:30 pm by the time we got around to dessert so serious shortcuts were made here) and served it warm over vanilla ice cream.

Now Bill doesn’t care for sweets the way I do, but loves apple pie and since Nicole is starting to domesticate herself one meal at a time (my dear friend once threw a steak out a window after it had caught on fire), I created and tested this simple, yet delicious recipe for Apple Crumb Pie yesterday. Bill loved it, which says a lot since he'd rather have a ham sandwich over anything sweet.

So after using 10 apples to bake the crisp and the pie, the three my dad ate plus six more that I left for him and one more that Bill had this morning, I’m still left with 10 or so apples!

 ….what to bake next?? Apple chips? Apple bread? Apple cake? All of the above? Suggestions are welcome!

Here are the recipes from this weekend’s apple adventure:

Nicole’s Apple Crumb Pie

6 baking apples (I used a combination of Gala, Fuji and one Macintosh)

Pillsbury Ready Made Pie Crust

1 box apple crumb topping (in the market, this is located in the produce section by the apples)

2 Tbsp. brown sugar

2 Tbsp. white sugar

3 Tbsp. flour

1 Tbsp. cinnamon

1 ½ sticks of butter, softened at room temp.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Prepare crumb topping by mixing 5 tbsp of butter into the crumb mixture. Use hands or a fork to create a crumb-like texture. Set aside.

Roll out pie crust into a 10-inch pie plate and prepare according to package instructions.

Peel, core and slice apples. Coat in a large bowl with sugars, flour and cinnamon. Fill pie shell with apples. Cut remaining butter on top of the apples.  Add crumb mixture on top, pressing the mixture firmly into the apples (so it doesn’t fall off during baking).  

Bake for 1 hour or until bubbly.

Late Night Caramel Apple Crisp

5 apples (I used Gala and Fuji here)

1 jar of caramel sauce

1 box apple crumb topping (same as used for the pie)

5 Tbsp. butter

Vanilla ice cream

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Prepare crumb topping by mixing 5 tbsp of butter into the crumb mixture. Use hands or a fork to create a crumb-like texture. Set aside. Peel, core and slice apples. Toss with a generous amount of caramel sauce. Place apples in a 9x9 baking dish. Add crumb topping on top of the apples.

Bake for 25 minutes or until bubbly. Serve with vanilla ice cream and remaining caramel sauce.