Post Picking

After apple picking we headed straight into the kitchen to make a crisp. I got out my Grandmother's recipe to use but ended up blending it with another recipe I found on line. I really wanted a crumb topping with oats. This recipe had crumbs on the bottom of the crisp as well as the top. This pleased me greatly as I prefer a crumb heavy crisp. However, the crisp was a total flop. Something strange happened in the oven. Some of the apples didn't cook and ended up rubbery. The other apples turned into apple sauce. The crumbles were strange too. I blame my oven. I blame my lack of baking mo-jo. Seems I had none. If you have any crisp/crumble tips I'd love to hear 'em.

After the crisp failure we headed to apple sauce. The girls helped me cut the apples. I peeled the apples and cut them in thick slices. The girls cut the slices in half with a butter knife. HUGE highlight for the kiddos. Beware of the butter knife wielding 3 year old, however. She did most of her cutting with the wrong side of the knife. There was also a fair amount of knife waving which was a bit anxiety producing. Then Audrey helped me put the cooked pieces through the food mill. Apple sauce.

The rest of our bounty remains sitting in baskets in the hall. When I recover from apple burnout I'll figure out what to do with the rest of the apples. Maybe apple butter?