Gizdich Farms Raspberry Green Apple Crisp

I have something for you guys!  A super delicious yet relatively easy recipe for your upcoming Thanksgiving dinner.  Or dinners if you're lucky like me.  I have FOUR to attend this year.    Two down, two more to go!  For number two (a Friendsgiving) this crisp.  I can't ALWAYS bring cookies. (Yes, I can.) 

The recipe was sourced and inspired by last month's visit to Watsonville (California) to visit  the boyfriend's old stomping grounds.  Watsonville is known for their agriculture -- STRAWBERRIES! -- they are home to both Driscoll's and Martinellis.  November is well past berry season, but we made it in time for the tail end of apple season.   

Along with touring apiaries and old highschools, we took a quick trip to Gizdich Farms.  It's an orchard where you can pick apples and berries, eat at their in-house bakery thats uses their own fresh fruit, have a picnic, shop at their market, or buy their fresh apple juice.  We didn't have time to pick apples, but we did have enough time to go to the pie shop.  Who doesn't have time for pie?  It was delicious.  We also went by their market where I picked up some of their free recipes.  Glad I did because I picked up this little gem.  

Crips are basically one step short of a pie and I can get behind that.  Less work and still delicious!  Until pies stop intimidating me so much I think I shall stick with crisps.  I was drawn to this recipe because they used both apples AND raspberries.  

The combination of the tart fruits and the cinnamon sugar is great and they even use walnuts!  It's a great spin on a traditional Thanksgiving apple pie for sure.

Raspberry Green Apple Crisp

Use a 12 cup baking dish, bake at 375* for 20 minutes, and then for an additional 40.  Serve warm, preferably with ice cream.

For the topping:

1 c. rolled oats

3/4 c. flour

3/4 c. brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 c. unsalted cold butter

3/4 c. walnuts

For the filling:

10 large green apples, peeled, cored and sliced

1 1/3 c. raspberries 

1/3 c. sugar (or less, to taste)

2 tbsp. lemon juice

Directions:

1. Mix oats, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg in a bowl.

2. Add butter and and cut in (with a pastry cutter) until the mixture resembles a coarse meal.

3. Fold in walnuts.

4. Set aside in a refrigerator while you prepare the apples.

5. Combine apples, berries, sugar and lemon juice is a  separate bowl.  (Amount of sugar is optional. Use less if you prefer a more tangy dessert.)

6. Butter your baking dish, and spread apple-raspberry filling evenly.

7. Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes.

8. Uncover dish and bake for an additional 40 minutes, or until apples are soft and topping is brown and toasted.  

9. Serve warm.  Add vanilla ice cream if you want to be someone's bff.

I loved how the raspberries melted into the apples.  

And I loved the added walnuts.  Did you guys know that I am slightly allergic to walnuts, but I eat them anyways?   Such risky behavior.  

I shall try to be more active on here, I seem to have fallen off again.  I blame the two weddings I was in.  They stole my free time.  Oops.  But I wouldnt have had it any other way.  BFF Pammy and my favorite Hugo are happily married and my heart is still full for two of the friends I am most grateful for in this world.  

I hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Friendsgiving, Happy Turducken or whatever you call your day.  Just make sure there's a lot of  Gluttony and Gratitude in it.  

xoxo,

Anna 

Disclaimer:  I did not use Watsonville apples for this.  I did not have any left by the time I baked. 

Caramel Apple Fritters

September must be caramel month here at my feelings taste like cupcakes, cuz last week I  had those caramel pumpkin snickerdoodles, and just look at the caramel on that plate this week!  Nom.  Can't take full credit for these those, I had a lovely little baking partner this weekend.  My dear Rachelle, who I baked that soft chocolate cake with a few months ago, and I got together Saturday morning to churn out some quick donuts for a late dessert after brekkie.  Rachelle dates are the best.  They always involve food.

We adapted the recipe from here, but made one crucial change.  Instead of making a simple glaze (milk + powdered sugar) to coat it in, we drizzled it with caramel.  Yeah, just because caramels and apples are lovely and delicious.

Apple Fritters
Makes about 24 fritters, around 1.5 inches in diameter.
Fry at 375*  on each side as needed.

1 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
dash of salt
2 tsp cinnamon (feel free to add more, we wished we had!)
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp vanilla

1 tsp butter, melted
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
1 – 1 1/2 cups of finely chopped apples

vegetable oil for frying
powdered sugar for dusting

Directions

1. Mix dry ingredients together.

2. In mixer, slowly add in vanilla, butter, egg,milk and beat until incorporated. 

3. Fold in apple pieces. 

4. Heat oil.  Should be around 375*. Test with a small piece of dough before starting to fry.  Place 2-3 scoops of batter at a time into oil and cook on each side until golden brown and cooked all the way through.  (Once we got the hang of it, it took about 3 minutes to get them cooked all the way.  

5. Place on paper towels to absorb oil

6. Sprinkle with powdered sugar while still hot

Easy Caramel Sauce
About 8 oz of unwrapped caramels
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream

Directions:
1. Place caramels in a sauce pan over low heat and add cream

2. Whisk slowly until caramels are completely melted and sauce is smooth.
3. Drizzle over fritters and serve

So how do they look like when they're done and sprinkled with powdered sugar and drizzled with caramel?

Like this:

And when you bite into them, revealing those chopped up apples inside, they look a little like this:

Consume these ASAP because the warm insides and gooey caramel have a short shelf life.  Make sure that you have plenty of taste testers near by to help you do the job though.

Cuz the temptation to shove them all in your mouth is high.  They do smell, and look,  like caramel cinnamon apple deliciousness after all.

So put them on a plate, invite some friends over and have a fritter brekkie party.

It took a few to get the hang of frying them, I try not to use oil in anything I cook (granted, i can't cook) and neither does Rachelle but in the end they came out pretty awesome.  Now we feel confident that we will be adequately prepared for our next baking adventure:  churros.  I told you Rachelle dates are awesome.

But before we do that, we're hitting up Oakland's Eat Real Festival.  So no baking this weekend since I will already be eating 4x my body weight anyways. (I'm actually going for 2/3 days, haha.)  Check it out if you're in town.  It's 100% more awesome than any other foodie thing you've ever been to.

xoxo,

Anna