Caramel Apple Crisp

I live not very far from Apple Country USA! Every year, right around September, apples take over the grocery stores. Every type of apple you can think of is available. They are huge, round globes of crispy sweet goodness. Every other year, I purchase about 2 bushels of apples for apple sauce but on off years I still can not pass up these beauties and normally have a huge surplus of apples that I don't know what to do with. While scouring the internet, cook books, and the back of boxes for recipes, I found one for camel apple crisp. The original recipe came from a Nilla wafers box and while it was easy to make, it needed a couple specially purchased ingredients that I normally didn't have on hand. Then I found a recipe for caramel apple squares. I married the two recipes together. I make my own caramel sauce for it, but feel free to use caramel ice cream topping, combined with 1/4c of flour, heated over medium heat until thickened.

What You Need:
3/4 c butter
1 c packed brown sugar
1 c flour
1 c oats
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 c chopped pecans
3 c chopped apples (enough to completely cover the bottom of a 13x9 pan)
Caramel:
1/2 c butter
1/2 c packed brown sugar
1/4 c flour
1/4 c milk, cream OR half and half

What To Do:


Preheat oven to 350. Grease the bottom and sides of a 13x9 baking dish.
In a large bowl, beat together the butter and brown sugar on medium speed until very well mixed.

Beat in the flour, oats, cinnamon and nuts, until well blended and crumbly.





Press half the mixture into the bottom of the pan to make a bottom crust and cover with the chopped apples.
In a sauce pan, melt the butter for the topping. Once melted whisk in the brown sugar and flour. Turn the heat to high and keep whisking until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture boils and starts to thicken. Remove from heat and very very carefully add in the cream. The sugar will bubble and splatter when the cold cream is introduced so please be very careful. It should still be thick, but easy to pour out of the pan. If it's to thin, place back on the heat and bring to a boil until thickened. Drizzle over the apples. Sprinkle the remaining oat mixture over the top and back in the oven for 35-45 minutes or until the apples are soft and the top is golden brown. Let cool at least 30 minutes before serving.

*** Just a warring. When working with hot sugar be very very careful. It can cause some serious burns if it gets onto your skin because it will stick there. If you do happen to splatter some on you, immediately run it under very cold water to solidify the sugar before trying to remove it. Also to clean your pot easily, fill it with water and let it sit for a while. The sugar left in the pan will dissolve and you'll be able to clean it with no problems.


H A P P Y  C O O K I N G !!