Apples, Apples Everywhere!

Fall is a big season for apples, so use them in cooking, eat them plain, or decorate with them.  We eat a lot of apples, with caramel dip, apple sauce, in baking.  I bought a big bag of apples at my grocery store and made two recipes from them.  One was apple crisp (earlier blog), and this is the other recipe - Apple Crostata.  You can use fresh apples, or save time and use canned apples you find in the grocery store, I have made it both ways and they were delicious.

Peel, core and slice the apples, add butter, sugar, cinnamon and cook up in a pan with some walnuts.

I used a ready made pie crust and rolled out some leaves to decorate my Crostata.

Decorated and ready to go in the oven.  All baked, ready to eat for dessert.

Look how pretty it looks and is so easy and cheap to make!

Served warm with vanilla bean ice cream and caramel sauce, yum.......

Apple Crostata

Ingredients

6 Golden Delicious apples, or 1 - 21 oz.can of apple pie filling

2 Tbsp butter

1/3 cup of sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup of chopped walnuts

1 egg beaten with 2 tsp water (egg wash)

1 Pillsbury Pre-Made Pie Crust

Directions

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Peel, core and slice the apples if you are using fresh apples.  On medium - high heat, melt the butter in a large size frying pan and add the apples, whether you are using fresh or canned.  Add the sugar and cinnamon and stir to mix.  Toss in the walnuts and stir them.  Cook the apples for 10 minutes until the sauce thickens. 

Remove the crust from the package, and unroll it onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet.  Fill it with the apple mixture.  Fold the edges over by tucking and folding as you go around the shape of the crust.  Brush the egg wash on the crust.  Bake in the oven for 45 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.  Serve warm with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce.  Makes 4 servings.

TIP:  Try this recipe with dried cranberries too, just mix in the apples while they are cooking.