Healthy Twists

Happy Monday! Ok, I lie. Mondays suck. At least this one is over. The next 5 weeks are going to be crazy for me…I just need to make it through unscathed and I will be a happy camper.

I had a few people ask me about the program I mentioned in my last post. If you missed it, here’s where you can learn about my quest to be transformed, haha.

Yesterday, I went to my friend Jenny and Elizabeth’s housewarming party. I took this party, like I do for most parties, as an opportunity to try out a new recipe. I also needed to get rid of the CSA apples that were piling up faster than I could eat them (oh, how I wish Mitch ate apples…or plums because we’ve been getting a ton of those too) so I searched the internet for an apple crisp recipe that looked fairly foolproof.

This recipe from Recipezaar (love that site!) was very highly rated and I had nearly all of the ingredients. I used the cake flour that I had on hand, adding a little more because they say for every cup of AP flour, you add 2 tablespoons. This recipe called for 3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons of flour which is almost a cup…so I estimated.

After 30 minutes, the crisp still had raw flour on the top so I smooshed (technical term) it around with a fork a little and stuck it back in the oven for another 10 minutes. Then I let it cool for a bit and it looked like this:

Not super pretty, since the juices from the apples got all over the topping, but since I was bringing this to a housewarming party and not entering it in a bake-off contest, I was ok with that.

I didn’t get a photo of the cross-section for you unfortunately, but everyone at the party who tried it really enjoyed it. I was CRAVING frozen yogurt in a bad way, so I actually only had a few BIG bites to test out my handiwork. It was really good! The apples were tender but not mushy, and the topping was sweet and rich without being overly so.

I told Mitch I wanted to make this for Thanksgiving…but we’ll see. His mom makes something similar, with no oats and with canned apple pie filling instead of fresh apples. It’s good, don’t get me wrong…but I think I like my version better. SHHH!

Apple Crisp

(modified to from Recipezaar to cut down the sugar and the butter…a little)

Ingredients

• 7 small apples (1 granny smith and the rest were a sweet kind from my CSA)
• Juice from 1/2 lemon
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 tablespoons lightly packed brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon butter, melted

Topping

• 1 scant cup (means a little shy of a full cup) cake flour
• 6 tablespoons oatmeal
• 6 tablespoons sugar
• 6 tablespoons brown sugar (I used a mix of regular brown sugar and turbinado)
• 1 stick unsalted butter, cut in small pieces
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt

Directions (basically stolen from the recipe online)

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.

2. Core, peel, and chop apples. (I usually leave the peel on for fiber and nutrients, but this time I peeled ‘em) Sprinkle lemon juice over the prepped apples.

3. Put apples, sugars, and cinnamon in a 1 1/2 quart casserole dish.

4. Stir to combine.

5. Let sit about 20 minutes until some juice is released from the apples.

6. Combine flour, oatmeal and sugars.

7. Mix in the butter until it resembles coarse crumbs.

8. Pour melted 2 tbsp butter over apple mixture in the casserole.

9. Sprinkle with topping mixture.

10. Bake 30-40 minutes until topping is golden and filling is bubbling.

11. After 30 minutes, check it and burn your finger. Oh wait, don’t do that. Trust me,

12. Serve warm or at room temperature.

And now it’s time to read some blogs, get ready for tomorrow, and head off to bed. Story of my life!

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