Sunday, February 24, 2008

Applemania

Last week I made a trip to the farmers market for some veggies and fruit. My husband being a native of the Okanagon region of BC, loves his fruit, and I was so excited to get him some BC grown apples! Apparently I went a little overboard on the apples and before Owen could eat them, they were getting a little overripe. (Although I have a little feeling that there was a little bit of forethought on this on his part - as he quickly put in a request for apple crisp!) So I humored him and made my apple crisp, then having leftover peeled apples, I went on the search for something new and found a yummy cookie recipe!

Vikki's Crisp

I originally made up this recipe in a search for the perfect rhubarb crisp, and it turned out so well I adapted it to other fruits over the years. This is the apple version (of course).

Topping
1/2 cup warm (NOT melted) margerine or butter
2/3 cup flour
1 1/3 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cup oatmeal

Fruit Filling
4 cups peeled and chopped apples
2 tbsp water
2 tbsp lemon juice
(if using tart apples, you can add a little white sugar to the fruit)
1-2 tsp cinnamon to taste

Directions:
1. Mix the topping ingredients together in a medium bowl. Mix until it forms crumbly mixture and set aside.
2. In an 8x8 pan mix togethet the filling ingredients
3. Top with the topping mixture ( you may not want to use all the topping, I usually have about 1/4 cup or so left over - it makes a yummy snack!)
4. Bake for 35 minutes at 375.

Apple Oatmeal Cookies

I found this recipe from a cookbook I got as a shower present - 500 best Cookies, Bars & Squares by Esther Brody. It called for 1 cup of nuts as well, but as I am not a huge fan of nuts in my baking and as such didn't have much on hand, I decided to leave them out.

Ingredients
1 3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup oats
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup finely chopped and peeled apples
1 cup raisins

Method:
1. In a medium bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, oats, cinnamon and nutmeg.
2. In a second large bowl cream together the shortening and brown sugar. Add the eggs one egg at a time and mix throughly.
3. Mix the apple and raisins into the shortening and sugar mixture. Add in the flour mixture and stir. (if adding nuts, they should be folded in after the flour)
4. Drop teaspoon sized cookies onto a prepared cookie sheet and bake for 10-12minutes. The cookies should be a golden brown colour but still soft.
5. Remove to a wire rack to cool.

Ratings/Comments:
Owen seems to really like these cookies - he even refused to share them his hockey team! I did manage to sneak some to the hockey wives, and came home with non left.



I used my mini-food processor to chop the apples and it took about 30 seconds which was great! I can also eat come of the cookies as their aren't large chunks of fruit! I highly recommend this!

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