Apple blossoms!!! You know what that means!!!

What’s really amazing is that the apples survived the crazy weather we’ve had this year. A soaking spring, super hot and super dry summer, tornadoes, TWO hurricanes, and now a blight. :-p Gotta love New York apples! They’re hardy little things!

By the way, if you are like me and can’t remember if Spys are for pies or for fries, or what’s a best eating apple versus the baking apples, see this website: Pick Your Own. They have a huge list of all the apple varieties, when they are in season, what you can use them for, and more. They also have some yummy recipes, places to find PYO apple farms, and loads more information on their site. The varieties list is long, though, beware. Better print it out or load it on your pc tablet for easy access…. I had no idea there were so many apple varieties!

There were multitudes of blossoms in the spring, but oddly enough the apples are rather few and far between. I don’t know what happened along the way. Although I will add that right now the apples are small and green and perhaps I didn’t see them because they are camouflaged so well. Yah, I’ll have to break out my welch allyn or something, eh?

Oh well, even so I think there will be enough for a nice pie. Yum! I can smell it already!

The recipe those guys made seems to be hard cider (they add yeast). I’m not looking for that, I’m happy with a basic Super Apple Juice kind of cider.

I did find a more basic Apple Cider recipe at Food.com, that does not require the use of an expensive apple press. This looks like a recipe I can actually do!

Making cider has got to be a terrific job to do with the kids; it can get their minds off acne products and get them involved in the kitchen work.

photo credit: L. Marie

I made apple pie late last night on this crazy whim. It was a cold evening, and I was desperate to bake something. I enjoyed it so much I almost broke out the led christmas lights and started playing carols! Well, about the pie: this is all that is left.

I have posted my recipe for “industrial-sized” apple pie, but I have never posted my really easy recipe for “regular” apple pie. It’s a little different than the standard pie, because I reduce the sugar and add molasses. This gives it a heartier, less sweet flavor. It’s very good, especially with vanilla ice cream. I use store-bought pie crusts for the pie. I don’t bother making dough, rolling it, etc. Too much work. The pre-made crusts are always flaky, and they cut the pie-making time down to 1/3 of what it would be, making it all from scratch. I also have bags of pre-sliced apple in the freezer. Whenever we want to make a pie, we thaw out the apples, throw the ingredients together, and lay out the pre-made crusts. SO EASY! It takes me about 15 minutes to get a pie in the oven, from start to finish.

Granny’s Apple Pie

6-7 cups peeled, diced apples
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
1 Tablespoon tapioca
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup molasses
Pinch of salt

Mix the ingredients quickly in a large bowl. Dump into the pie pan lined with a crust. Lay another crust over the pan. Pinch the two crusts together firmly, to keep juices from bursting the seams. Make a few slits on the top (or carve out a fancy Macintosh apple as in the photo above) to allow steam to escape.

Place in a preheated oven set to 375 degrees. Bake for about an hour. Allow to cool slightly. Serve warm with ice cream!

Cranberry Apple Crisp
serve 6

2 cups fresh cranberries
4 cups apples, peeled and diced
1 cup granulated white sugar
1 packed cup Homemade brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup quick-cook oats
1/2 cup flour
2 tablespoons wheat germ or ground flax seed
1 teaspoon cinnamon
6 Tablespoons butter or margarine (but butter is better), at room temperature

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 2-quart baking dish. Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the cranberries, apples, granulated white sugar, and salt. Dump into your baking dish.

In the bowl that you just emptied, combine the brown sugar, oats, flour, wheat germ or flax seed, and cinnamon, and mix well. Cut in the butter until it looks like gravel. Dump this on top of your cranberries/apples mix in the dish.

Bake for 50 minutes to an hour, until the fruit is tender and the kids start salivating heavily. Serve while warm, with fresh cream, or ice cream. OH MY WORD, this is SO GOOD!!! It’s great after a turkey dinner.

So today I made Easy Giant Apple Pie. If you have peeled and diced apples and ready-made packaged pie crusts, this recipe takes about 15 minutes to throw together– it’s SO easy! And I call it “Giant” because it is a huge pie, baked in a casserole dish. This is nice if you have a lot of kids to feed (like me) or a big crowd, if you love leftover pie, or if you’re skipping the appetite suppressant and just want to bake a big pie.

Technically, this kind of apple pie is called “French” apple pie, because it has no top crust. Rather, it has a crumbly streusel topping. It’s fabulous with coffee or ice cream.

Regarding the spices– add to your own liking. I rarely use measuring utensils (I’m a hands-on kind of cook) so the measurements here are approximate. Also, make sure your pie crusts are room temperature. This makes them more flexible without tearing– you are going to need to pull at the crusts a little to fit them into a rectangular 13×9 casserole dish.

Easy Giant Apple Pie

2 pie crusts
1 13×9 casserole dish

for the pie mix:
10 cups (or so) of pared and diced apples (thawed)
3/4 cup raisins (optional)
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup molasses (optional)
1/4 cup ground flax seed meal (optional)
2 Tablespoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon ginger
1/2 cup flour

for the topping:
1 stick of butter
1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Blend the topping ingredients and mash in the butter until the mix looks gravelly.

Mix up the apples and other ingredients for the pie filling.

Take your pie crusts. Make sure they are room temperature.

Gently unroll one of the crusts and place it into the casserole dish. You want to stretch it a little to make the crust fit up along the sides of the dish.

Unroll the second crust and overlap the first a little. Press the seam together where the two meet. Again, make sure your crust fits up along the inner sides of the dish.

Dump the pie filling in the dish. Sprinkle the topping evenly on top.

Bake in a hot oven at 400 degrees for an hour and twenty minutes. The pie should be bubbling. The baking pie makes the house smell INCREDIBLE.

Doesn’t it look scrumptious?? Yum!

The boys volunteered to harvest the fruit, and then they volunteered to peel and dice the apples! This is because they knew what awaited them if they did: Apple Crisp. I serve it warm with ice cream, and it’s a favorite dessert. I make a TON of it at one time. The leftover serves well for breakfast the next day, or for a repeat dessert the next evening (all you have to do is sprinkle some extra oatmeal on the leftovers and bake again for 20 minutes).

Here’s my Easy Apple Crisp recipe. It’s my favorite dessert recipe because it so easy– I’d much rather do the quick-and-easy stuff so I can spend more time looking for nice women shoes or reading my books.

Easy Apple Crisp
serves 10

10 to 12 cups of apples, pared and diced
2 cups of brown sugar OR 1 3/4 cups of white sugar and 1/2 cup molasses
3 sticks butter (preferred) or margarine
1 cup flour
2 cups quick-cooking oatmeal
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon ginger

You’ll need a very large casserole dish– I use my nice huge one. Grease it up generously with margarine or butter. Dump your diced apples into the dish and pat down.

Concerning the brown sugar– you can use straight brown sugar, or you can do what I did if you don’t have any or don’t feel like making any– and that is, coat your apples with 1/2 cup of molasses before adding anything else. This is what I did for this recipe.

In a large mixing bowl, mash your sticks of butter just a little, with a sturdy fork. Add the sugar to the butter and mash it some more. It does not need to be very well-mixed, just blended. (Remember this is “Easy” Apple Crisp!).

Add the flour, oatmeal, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger, and mix it together. Dainty ladies use forks, but when I use them, I just make a mess all over the countertop. You can feel free to ditch the fork and mash the stuff with your hand.

When blended, dump the oatmeal/margarine/sugar mix on top of your apples in the dish. Spread it around with your hand– don’t pat it down because the apples will need room to “breathe” while they bake. I take my hands and poke holes into the apples, to allow the oats and butter to sink in.

Place in a pre-heated oven set at 350 degree, and bake for an hour. It will smell HEAVENLY while it bakes.

Serve warm with cream or ice cream.

This is a great quickie dessert for those autumn evenings. Enjoy!