Apple Recipes

To coincide with our unit study on apples and our field trip to the apple orchard, I'd like to collect all your favorite apple recipes! Apple pie, apple cobbler, apple cider, caramel apples, baked cinnamon apples, apple french toast, apple pancakes, fresh apple juice, smoothies...whatever you can think of! If you don't have a favorite, get with your kids and pull out the cookbooks (or get some from the library if you don't have any), or look up recipes online. Experiment with an apple recipe, and then share it with us!

Cooking with our kids can be a great real life learning experience, but more importantly, it's a time for making some great family memories. If you have little ones, let them help by dumping the measuring cups into the bowls. I always say, the measure of a mom's patience is her ability to remain calm when baking with little ones. :) Don't worry so much about the goodies coming out just right. Just remind yourself, you're not just making cookies, you're making memories! So, if your little one turns on the Kitchen Aid a little too high (or a lot) and flour goes flying everywhere, or if they turn on the smoothie maker before the cap is on and you have blueberries all over your kitchen (and your little one's head), just laugh and mark that one down for the memory book. Then, teach your kids the art of cleaning up. :) (By the way, both of those things have happened in our house - more than once!)

So, send me your recipes (to sheridavis27@mchsi.com) and if you have pictures, send those too! We'd love to see the fun you had baking together, or of your final product. Or, make one of the recipes listed here, and leave us a comment and let us know how you liked it.

Here is our favorite apple recipe. (FYI: My brand references are to the Feingold Diet which avoids artificial ingredients.)

Triple Berry and Apple Pie

You can buy a pre-made pie crust. I use one from Trader Joe’s. Take out of the freezer and let sit at room temp for an hour before using. Below is the filling and topping.

1 cup sugar
5 tsp of quick cooking tapioca (sometimes this is found near the canning jars for some reason)
½ tsp cinnamon
4 cups frozen mixed berries (blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries)
2 or 3 Granny Smith apples, peeled and cut into small slices
2 TB butter, cut into small cubes (optional - see below)

Grease bottom and sides of pie pan with melted butter. Place pastry in pie pan.
In large mixing bowl, stir together the sugar, tapioca, and cinnamon. Add the berries and apple slices. Toss gently till coated. Let stand 15 minutes.

Spoon filling into pastry lined pie plate. Dot with 2 TB of butter. (Do not need to do this if you are using the crumb topping below.)

If using a pie crust as a top, place pastry over fruit and crimp edges to seal. Cut 4 small slits in the crust near center. Cover edges of crust with foil (optional).

Place pie on a foil lined cookie sheet to catch any over flow.

Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes.

Remove foil and bake another 30-45 minutes or until pie is bubbling at slits.

For a crumb topping: (If you use this topping, you won’t need to dot top of pie with 2 TB of butter as per above).

1 cup of flour (I like to use King Arthur unbleached flour but any will do)
½ cup brown sugar, firmly packed (Light Brown Domino Sugar)
1/8 tsp salt
½ cup of butter (1 stick - Land O'Lakes or organic)

Combine the above ingredients. Blend until crumbly (I cut up the butter with a butter knife into small cubes), then sprinkle over fruit. Bake as above. Allow pie to cool for a while before cutting (at least an hour - but who can wait!). Top with vanilla ice cream (Breyers All Natural Vanilla or Haagen Dazs). Store leftovers in the refrigerator.

Boston Market Cinnamon Apples

6 apples, peeled and sliced (once sliced, cut slices in half)
1 1/3 cups of water
2 tsp cornstarch
1 cup brown sugar (Domino Light Brown Sugar)
1 TB of flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
4 tsp butter
2 dashes of salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, combine the water and cornstarch. Then add the flour, cinnamon, salt, sugar, and butter. Place the sliced apples in an 8x11 baking dish. Pour the cinnamon mixture over the apples. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 60 minutes, or until apples are tender, stirring every 10-15 minutes. (I doubled this recipe. The original recipe called for 3 apples and to cook them for 40 minutes. When I doubled the recipe above, it needed to cook much longer. I think 60 minutes will work.) Sometimes I set the timer for the first 15 minutes, so I don’t forget to stir them. Serve alone or over vanilla ice cream, pancakes, apple muffins, whatever you can think of. Store in the refrigerator.