bcmom's kitchen: Apple Crunch

Our neighbors have a couple of apple trees, and they are loaded with apples. They said we could have as many apples as we want because they really don't do anything with them. So today I walked over and picked a few of them. Then I went looking in my favorite cookbook - The Best of Mennonite Fellowship Meals - and found this recipe. I've been using this cookbook for years, but I hadn't tried this recipe yet.

Why? It's really good and quite easy to make, too. I guess there are just so many good recipes that it's going to take a bit longer to try them all. Now that I've tried this one, though - I will be making it again.

Apple Crunch
from The Best of Mennonite Fellowship Meals

Ingredients:

8-10 apples
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
cinnamon
butter
1 cup flour
2/3 cup (or less) white sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 egg

Directions:

Peel and slice apples. Arrange in 9x13" baking pan. Add 1/3 cup brown sugar and 1/3 cup white sugar to the apples and mix with fork. Sprinkle liberally with cinnamon and dot with butter.
Mix together flour, 2/3 cup white sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add egg and mix with fork until crumbly. Pour over apples, spreading evenly and then shaking pan slightly so mixture settles down through apples.
Bake at 350° for 40-45 minutes or until bubbly and lightly browned.
Serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

I sprinkled a lot of cinnamon on my apples, but I think it could have used even more. I really don't think there is such a thing as too much cinnamon with apples. The first time I made this Cinnamon Apple Dutch Baby, I thought I'd used too much cinnamon - that is, until I tasted it, and it was perfect. So, use lots of cinnamon!

Ready to bake

I used not quite 2/3 cup sugar in the topping, but for me this was plenty sweet, so I think next time I will cut it down a bit more. Other than that, it's pretty perfect. The top bakes up all crunchy, and you get bits of caramelly goodness around the edges where the apples and sugar and butter all bake. So good!