Apple Crisp and Embroidery

I planned for today's post to be be about the apple crisp recipe we tried out on the weekend.

However, when I took photos of the apple crisp, I found that the embroidered linen I put it on was much more interesting than the crisp itself. Every photo seems to have more house picture than apple crisp, so I decided to take some pictures of the linen sans crisp.

The photo above shows the entire embroidery, although I am afraid it looks a little dark. The creator was my mother-in-law, and she made this prior to her marriage, many years ago. She often said how tedious and old-fashioned she found all the needlework that she and other young ladies were forced to do in that era. Now the wheels are turning back and many young women want to learn these skills again.

Here is a better picture showing the house and garden. The border is very fine, hand-crocheted lace.

Now back to the original purpose of this post. The recipe for today comes from Seasonal Delights Magazine, from Autumn 2007. Seasonal Delights is a quarterly e-zine for mothers and daughters, filled with craft ideas, recipes, puzzles, book lists, and all manner of delightful seasonal ideas. However, as the Autumn 2007 came out during our spring 2007 (we live in the Southern Hemisphere), my daughter and I have only just begun to enjoy it.

Apple crisp is very similar to Aussie apple crumble. At first I thought the amount of butter was very high, but it does make for a delicious, buttery, and crisp, apple crisp.

Apple Crisp

8 apples (4 Granny Smith and 4 Gala) -- I used all Grannies
1/2 C butter, melted
1 C all-purpose flour
1/2 C white sugar
1/2 C brown sugar
1 C oats
1 tbsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 C butter, cut into small pieces.

1. Preheat oven to 350 F

2. Peel, core and slice the apples. Place prepared apples in a greased 9 x 13 " baking dish (I used a lasagne dish).

3. In a bowl, mix dry ingredients together, then add melted butter to form a crumbly mixture.

4. Sprinkle mixture over apples. Dot with remaining 1/4 C butter.

5. Bake in a preheated oven 40-50 minutes, until lightly browned and apples are tender.

Delicious with cream, custard or vanilla ice cream.


Tips

1. We found that even after 50 minutes the apples were fairly firm. You may wish to precook the apples if you like them very soft, or increase the cooking time.
2. You could substitute other fruits for the apple.
3. When I make recipes like this using rhubarb, I prefer to substitute ground ginger for the cinnamon and nutmeg. Rhubarb and ginger are a match made in heaven. If using rhubarb you would need to cook it first with some sugar, or you would end up with a very sour crisp!

Kate xxx