Baked Apple Crisp

I've had apples sitting in my fridge since November (yuck, I know) They came straight from the orchard when I wanted to make an apple pie and I had some left over. (When properly stored, apples can last for a while) I'd been eyeing baked apple recipes and toying with ideas for them. Recently I saw a picture of single serve apple pies baked right inside the apples. This peaked my attention but I was not in the mood for making pie dough (it's too messy and finicky). Since I prefer apple crisp I set out to see if I could make an apple crisp baked inside the apples. And guess what, it worked!!
Baked Apple Crisp
Ingredients
2 apples
lemon juice
2 T butter (softened)
2 T brown sugar
2 T flour
2 T old fashioned rolled oats
1/2 t cinnamon
1/2 t nutmeg
Directions
1. Cut the tops off the apples and hollow them out.

 2. Save the apple pieces that you hollowed out and put them in a bowl with lemon juice and water to keep them from browning.

3. Mix together rest of the ingredients making sure to chop up the butter and spread over the drained apples (This makes enough topping for more than two apples)

4. Bake at 350 degrees F until apples are soft and filling is bubbling. About 10-15 min.

 5. Enjoy it plain or with a scoop of ice cream!

Apple Sauce

Apple Sauce, my favorite thing about fall (I realize this is December, but I wanted to share anyway). I love it so much that I eat it straight out of the pot, nice and warm. I even warm my homemade applesauce in the microwave when it's been refrigerated.


In October I went to a local orchard and picked up three bags of apples to make into applesauce

My husband helped me pick Mutsu, Jonathon, and Fuji apples for this batch. I always mix apples when i make applesauce because it makes for a tastier applesauce

After cutting them into large slices I stuffed my largest pot full of the apples and little bit of water to keep them from sticking. No need to peel or core the apples, and I'll tell you why later. 


The apples cooked for about an hour until they were mushy and falling apart. Using a food mill that I borrowed from my mom I processed the apples to remove the skin and seeds. (This was probably the most time consuming portion)


I put the hot applesauce in canning jars and popped them into the canner to process (saving the extra for dinner that night), and then....


Edit My canner was a wedding present from friends who had recently moved away. They sent me a gift card with instructions to purchase the canning starter set. I thought it was sweet of them

Four quarts of applesauce!! This is the best applesauce I've ever made. The mix of the three gave it a rosy color and a natural sweetness. No need for sugar here! My husband agrees, this was the best applesauce I've made.