A P P L E S !

APPLE CRISP

4 cups peeled, sliced apples
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup water

Place sliced apples in bottom of greased 9-inch baking dish. Mix dry
ingredients; sprinkle over apples. Pour water over apples.

3/4 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 tablespoon sugar
1/4 cup butter or margarine

Mix flour, oats and sugars. Cut in margarine with a fork until mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle crumbs over apples. Sprinkle a bit of cinnamon over top. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

Applesauce with a twist. Grandma Landenberger came up with this one years ago. She died in 1986 but her cooking lives on. The cinnamon red hots, the ones that you buy to decorate cookies, give the sauce an appealing red color and a tangy cinnamon flavor. Buy the red hots in bulk around Valentine's Day.
The aroma while cooking this is utterly delectable.

CINNAMON RED HOT APPLESAUCE

20 medium apples; peeled, cored, and sliced
1/4 to 1/2 cup cinnamon red hots
1/4 cup - 1/2 cup sugar

Fill bottom of a Dutch oven, or your largest pot, with 1/3 inch of water. Add cinnamon red hots to soak while preparing apples. Add apples to pot; cover and cook on high until water comes to a roiling boil, turn down to medium. Cook for 20 minutes or until apples are tender and mushy looking. Stir occasionally so apples won't stick and to coat them with the cinnamon water. Watch to make sure water doesn't boil completely away, apples will add their moisture, too. When apples are done, drain in a colander in the sink. Let sit till cooled to lukewarm temperature.
Put apples back into pot and add sugar to taste, or no sugar at all if it tastes sweet enough.

Note: Can be frozen in small freezer bags. To thaw, sit bag in refrigerator overnight. If still not
thawed by dinnertime, put bag the microwave in a bowl, open top of bag and defrost for a few minutes.

This recipe is a bit odd but strangely tasty. I've had it for years,
not sure where I got it from, probably from a magazine.

APPLE SPOONUP

6 c. pared, sliced apples
1/2 c. sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 can Pillsbury Refrigerated Quick Crescent Dinner Rolls
1 1/2 c. sour cream
1 c. firmly packed brown sugar

Set oven to 375 degrees. Spread apples in buttered 13x9 inch pan. Combine sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle over apples. Unroll crescents; separate into 4 rectangles. Place over apples. Rectangles need not completely cover apples. Combine sour cream and brown sugar; spread over dough. Bake at 375 degrees for 40-45 minutes, until deep golden brown.

Tip: 2 cans (1 lb., 5 oz. each) prepared apple pie filling may be
substituted for fresh and sugar. Bake 45-50 minutes.

And don't forget the apple pie. This recipe comes from
Better Homes & Garden Cookbook (the red & white checked one) but the pie crust
is a recipe I got a long time ago from my dad who would bake mincemeat and
pumpkin pies at Christmas. We may not be close, Dad, but thanks for the recipe.

APPLE PIE

6 cups peeled and cored apples (or more to make a mounded pie)
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
Pastry (recipe below)

Place pastry in bottom of pie pan. Heap with peeled and cored apples. In a small bowl mix together sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and flour. Sprinkle sugar mixture evenly over the apples. Top sugar mixture with pats of butter spaced around the filling. Wet fingertips in cold water and moisten edges of pie crust. Top pie with other half of the pie crust and crimp edges together.

Bake at 400 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes or until dough is golden brown and apples cooked through. Cool completely before serving.

FLAKY PASTRY

2 cups flour
3/4 cup shortening
1/2 cup milk (or water, milk seems to make it more tender)

Put flour in a large mixing bowl; add shortening. Cut shortening in with the edges of two butter knives, criscrossing the knives together. Add milk and stir till all flour is moistened and dough forms a ball.

Divide dough in half. Roll out one half on a floured surface to the size that will fit into the bottom of pie pan. Fold pie crust into fourths and lift to pan. Undo the dough and conform dough to the sides and bottom of pan. Trim dough around the edge of a pan with a knife. Fill with pie filling. Top filling with other half of rolled out dough. Crimp edges together to form a seal. Bake as directed.

I just found this one on the Internet and it sounds yummy. I haven't tried it yet.

CARAMEL TOPPED APPLE PIE

5 1/2 cups peeled & sliced tart apples (2 pounds)
1/4 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted
1/2 pound vanilla caramels* (use cellophane-wrapped caramels)
1/2 cup milk
Unbaked pastry shell

In a 3- to 4-quart pan, combine apples and water. Bring to a boil; boil for 1 minute, then pour into a 10- by 15-inch rimmed baking pan to cool quickly. When cool, spoon apples into pastry shell.

Combine sugar, cracker crumbs, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, pecans, and butter; sprinkle over apples. Bake in a 425 degree oven for 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350, continue to bake until apples are tender, 20 more minutes.

Meanwhile, combine caramels and milk in the top of a double boiler. Stir over simmering water until melted and smooth. Pour sauce over pie; continue to bake until caramel just begins to bubble at pie edges, about 10 more minutes. Cool.

NOTE: A caramel ice cream topping might work just as well.