Early Apples

It's going to be a tremendous year for tree fruits!  Before we realized what was happening, early Gravenstein apples were starting to drop off the trees!  We have an espaliered apple tree with 6 varieties grafted on it.  Apples on this tree seem to ripen earlier than on our other trees, and to my surprise, I was finding apples on the ground.  Time to do something with them!  It was easy to get my husband to gather apples for me when the reward was apple crisp for dessert.  I have a recipe that has to be one of the best apple crisps ever.  It's on the blog HERE.

Since there were so many apples, I made 2 crisps - one for the oven and one for the freezer.  I peeled, cored and sliced the apples, dropping them into water which had lemon juice in it to keep them from turning brown.

The topping is a sort of shortbread-like mixture with walnuts added at the end and roughly chopped.

When I had enough sliced, I drained the apples and mixed them with a sugar/cinnamon/cloves combination.

Topping is added to the apples and gently smoothed over the top.

Then into a 350F oven until golden brown and oozing juice.  The kitchen smells wonderful!  Now to get some vanilla ice cream and dessert is covered.  And there's another unbaked apple crisp in the freezer!

The Best Apple Crisp Ever!

One of the great things about having a garden is getting to cook with your own ingredients.  Today I made an apple crisp using our own stripy Gravenstein apples and the raisins I just finished dehydrating.  The apple crisp recipe I've been using for years has a short-bready type crust and it always brings compliments.  Since I didn't have any walnuts on hand, I skipped that part (the walnuts really finish the crisp beautifully) and added the raisins to the filling instead.

Gravenstein Apples

Filling:
6 tart apples
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp lemon juice

Peel, core and slice the apples into a bowl. Mix the filling ingredients together and put in a buttered oven-proof bowl.

Filling waiting for the topping

Topping:
3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 tsp salt
6 Tbsp butter
1/4 cup chopped nut meats

Blend the topping ingredients to a crumbly consistency.  Add the nuts and sprinkle over the apple mixture.  Bake 45 minutes at 350 degrees F, or until the apples are tender and the crust is nicely browned.  Wonderful with whipped cream or ice cream.

Apple Crisp!  Yum!