So here I sat with a bunch of apples! I bake a little, but not a lot. We just don't eat a lot of baked goods here. When we make banana bread, pumpkin bread, zucchini bread, etc...we eat a few pieces and the rest goes to waste. Now I make the "bread" into muffins and put them in the freezer so we can just grab one and go and they don't go to waste. But we already had a batch of zucchini and banana muffins in the freezer and I didn't want to put another batch of baked goods in there! What was I gonna do with all these apples!
I chopped some up and added them to chicken salad, I added some to a pork roast for a little added sweetness and put some in the stuffing too. But I still had about 8 apples left and I wasn't sure what to do with them.
I checked out some of my favorite web sites for inspiration and found this little recipe for "Spiced Apples". It said it could be served as a side dish and was also really good over ice cream! I'm all for a versatile dish, and who doesn't like a good topping for ice cream!
When I look at recipes, I follow them pretty loosely! I like to doctor them up to my liking. So, here's what I did:
We peeled, cored and chopped the apples and tossed them with about a tablespoon of lemon juice. Then I put them in my little crock pot and put about 2 tablespoons of sugar over them. I let Olivia put in about 1/2 cup of Red Hot candies in there, figuring she'd love to see the candy in there and be more apt to eat it if she helped. Then I turned the crock pot on low. This is what it looked like:
(Sorry about the time stamp on my pic! I forgot to reset the date after changing the batteries in the camera!)
As you can see, my crock pot was pretty full! I didn't have room in there to stir them in! Maybe I should have used a bigger one! I waited for the apples to cook down a little and then did a little stir. (don't the Red Hots look cute in there?)
Now, I used a variety of granny smith, red delicious, gala, and fuji apples, but I don't think that matters too much. Use what you have on hand or what you like the best.
We started these in the crock pot at 10 am. By 1 pm this is what they looked like:
The aroma in the house was awesome! It smelled like an apple cinnamon Yankee candle! And who doesn't like that smell? At this point the apples were getting soft but still had a little texture to them. We decided that we wanted to make more of a "sauce" with this so we left them going. By 3:30 the apples were very tender so we turned the crock pot off and let the apples cool a bit.
The sauce seemed a little "thin" but as they cooled it was perfect! By 6pm we had BBQ Bean soup and a side of Spiced Apples and they were both delicious. Olivia did have some of the apples over ice cream and I had a little bite, as I was so full from dinner. It really is good over ice cream! So, there it is, an awesome side dish turned dessert! Hope you all enjoy!
Spiced Apples
8 or so apples, peeled, cored and chopped
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup Red Hot candies
Put all ingredients in a crock pot set on low and cook for about 5 1/2 hrs.
I turned off the crock pot and allowed them to cool-covered- to just a little warmer than room temp and it was perfect!
