Summer 2011, Day 3: Apple Brown Betty

Today we made Apple Brown Betty from Ellie Krieger's SO Easy cookbook.

I had actually never heard of an Apple Brown Betty, but it reminded me of an Apple Crisp, which I love, so I wanted to try it. It's exactly like an apple crisp, but a lot healthier. The ingredients are apples, apple cider (except we used apple juice), cinnamon, 2 tablespoons of butter, bread (GF or regular), vanilla, and brown sugar.

You basically just simmer the apples and the brown sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and juice in sauce pan. You peel the apples first, then chop them.

Later, when it's simmered (10 minutes), you add a little butter.

Then you get a food processor and blend the bread, add cinnamon and a little brown sugar, then mix in 1 tablespoon of butter.

You put the apples into a pan and put the crumble and bake it.

This tastes exactly like an apple crisp, and I suggest if you like apple crisp, you make this dish.

The good thing is that it's healthy. You cut down on the butter, and you whole grain bread, if you can, you only add a little sugar, you use juice (or cider), and that's where it gets the sweetness. It reminds me of autumn, and me and my mom love that.

So it's really good. 2 Thumbs Up!

Day 66 - Baked Apples

Recipe from Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution

Hello! Wassup?

Today Jared and I made baked apples. I've never had baked apples in my life and so was my chance. We wanted to do something different. When it got out of the oven, it looked like apple sauce on an apple.

There's lemon and orange zest in the apples, too.  When you're zesting, you don't actually go to the orange or lemon fruit.  You grate the skin that you don't eat.  It's kind of weird that the skin has so much flavor, but it does.

The skill I learned today is to not core an apple with a glass bowl next to you. If your brother gives you a corer with part of the apple still in it and tells you to get it out, never get it out with a knife. Because if you accidentally slip, you can tip over the glass bowl and it will fall on the floor right where your cat is laying. Plus you could cut yourself, but I was using a butter knife, not a sharp knife, and the bowl broke but the cat was like, zzzzppppp, out of the kitchen.

One Jared noticed is that we never have all of the ingredients for any recipe. Jamie Oliver must have a ginormous pantry and cabinets to have every ingredient. We did not have all the ingredients today. We didn't have cloves or almonds or mixed spices. So we used ground cloves, pecans, oats, and we figured the mixed spices were cinnamon, ginger, and maybe nutmeg.

You stuff the cored apple with the filling.

Jared did his the way he wanted and I did mine the way I wanted, so we each got our own apples. I put butter, raisins, brown sugar, pecans, the spices, and a little oats in mine. Jared didn't put the raisins or pecans in his.

They bake, which is something that surprised me.

What I discovered is that baked apples are yummy. They taste like apple sauce on an apple with little toppings on it. Jared thinks it's a little sweet or tart or something. I think it's good, but I didn't like the skin.

Baked apples are something I will definitely do again.

2 THUMBS UP