Common Cuisine |

This is one of those fun recipes that could serve as a breakfast or dessert. It’s also a great dish for kids to help with. Have them roll the apples in the dough for you, and they will feel as if they created the dish themselves.

• 2 medium Granny Smith apples
• 1 package (6 large or jumbo) refrigerated crescent roll dough
• 1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
• 4 Tbsp butter
• ½ cup sugar
• ½ cup orange juice
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ½ cup very finely chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350. Grease 8” square baking dish. Peel and core apples. Cut each apple in 6 pieces.

Unroll crescent roll dough. Separate triangles, then cut each in half from the point to the wide end. Starting at wide end, wrap each apple section in a dough triangle and place in pan. Sprinkle with cinnamon.

Combine butter, sugar and orange juice in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Pour over dumplings. Sprinkle pecans over top.

Bake 30 minutes until golden and bubbly. Serve warm, spooning some of the syrup from the baking dish over dumplings. Serve with ice cream, if desired.

Serves 12.

• 1 lg butternut squash
• 1 med onion
• 3 med apples
• 1 cup chopped carrot
• 5 cups broth
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp granulated sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 cup milk

Place whole squash in the microwave for 8 minutes.

Peel and cut squash in cubes. Place all ingredients (except milk) in a soup pot and cook for 45 minutes or longer. Adjust seasonings.

Stir in milk and ladle into bowls.

Serves 10.

• 2 cups quick or old fashioned oatmeal, uncooked
• 1-1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. salt (necessary)
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. nutmeg
• 1 cup applesauce
• 1/2 cup chopped nuts

Preheat oven to temperature 375°F. Combine all ingredients, except applesauce and nuts, in a bowl. Mix until crumbly. Reserve 1 cup mixture. Press remaining mixture onto bottom of greased 13×9 inch baking pan. Bake 13-15 minutes. Cool. Spread applesauce over partially baked base and sprinkle with nuts. Sprinkle reserved 1 cup oatmeal mixture over filling. Bake 13-15 minutes or until golden brown. Cool and cut into 2 inch squares.

Source: Chefs.com

from the kitchen of Gracie Hinton

• 1 C light brown sugar
• ½ C shortening
• 1 egg
• 1 ½ Cups flour
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 C chopped unpeeled apple
• Whole pecan halves (optional)

Cream together sugar and shortening. Beat in egg. Sift together dry ingredients and add to mixture. Beat until well blended. Stir in apples. Drop in the shape of a ball on a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 for 12-15 minutes. Sprinkle cinnamon and pecan on top.

Now we’re talking. The almond carries the apple to a higher plane of existence. Sign me up for seconds!

• 1 Pillsbuy Pie crust
• ½ cup sugar
• ¼ cup flour
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• three shakes of salt
• 8 cups thinly sliced apples (about 8 medium)

Crumb Topping:

• ½ cup all purpose flour
• ½ cup packed brown sugar
• ½ cup cold butter
• ½ cup chopped almonds

Heat oven to 425. Put pie crust in 9″ pie plate. Mix sugar, flour, salt, and almond extract in large bowl. Stir in apples. Put mixture in pie plate.

Mix Crumb Topping ingredients in medium bowl until crumbly. One way to do this is by putting all into a food processor and pulsing a few times. Sprinkle topping over apple mixture.

Bake 50 minutes. Cover with a sheet of foil during last 10 minutes.

Serves 8.

I read an interesting article last summer about the decline of the Red Delicious apple. Apparently the variety we get in our markets today is a far cry from the apple people fell in love with a hundred years ago. In response to consumer demand, growers developed the apple to have a more appealing bright red color and more durable thick skin.

Reds do last up to a year in cold storage, and make a beautiful display. However, due to playing with the variety maybe too much, the quality of Red Delicious has declined significantly in the last 20 to 30 years, to the point that few people are buying them anymore. Other varieties like Gala and Fuji are on the rise as the dominant sweet red apples.

As I read this article I began to understand why, for so many years, I have been disinterested in Red Delicious apples to the point that I will hardly eat red apples at all for fear of eating a Red Delicious by mistake. But it turns out the problem is not so much with the apple itself as the fact that it is difficult to tell when to harvest it for optimum flavor.

This is good news, because one of my three apple trees is a Red Delicious. It did not bear fruit this year due to severe wind damage last year. And I am glad for that because my Golden Delicious tree went haywire, producing several thousand apples by my best estimate. I have had enough to do with the fruit from one obnoxious tree and one tree (a Jonagold) with light production. But after reading this article, I have hope that I can harvest that Red Delicious tree next year in waves, and catch as many apples as possible at their peak of ripeness and flavor. I’ll let you know how they grow.

• 2 Pie Crusts
• 2/3 cup packed brown sugar

Mmm… cranberries, apples, nuts. Sounds like a winning combination to me!

• 1/3 cup flour
• 2 cups fresh cranberries
• 5 cups chunked apples
• ½ cup coarsely chopped nuts, toasted

Preheat oven to 425. Line pie plate with pastry crust. Mix brown sugar and flour in large bowl. Stir in cranberry sauce, apples and nuts. Place mixture in pie plate. Cover with top crust and cut vents; then crimp edges together.

Bake 40 to 50 minutes until crust begins to brown and juice starts to bubble out of the vents.

Serves 8.