FYI: This is how many apples are in a bushel

Bushel

I do not know how many might be in a peck. I do know I am up to my eyeballs in apples. We’ve made two pies, I’m making apple butter, and I foisted some off on my mother-in-law for applesaucing. The first pie was the standard toss-sugar-and-apples, put-in-a-crust-and-bake scenario. The second, though, called for a carmelly, syrupy concoction that’s poured over the apples. I didn’t follow the original recipe to a T, but it was still delicious. Here’s what I did:

Caramel Apple Pie
Pie crust for double-crust pie (I usually use Pillsbury, but this time it was store brand.)
1/2 cup unsalted butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg white
6 apples, peeled, cored and sliced

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add water, brown sugar and 1/2 cup white sugar, and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and let simmer.

Place the bottom crust in a pie plate. Fill with apples, mounded slightly. Gently pour the caramel mixture over the apples. Top with second crust; crimp edges and cut a few slits in the top. Brush top crust with egg white and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon white sugar.

Bake 20 minutes in the preheated oven. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees. Continue baking for 45 minutes or until apples are soft.

So, what’s your favorite apple application?

5 thoughts on “FYI: This is how many apples are in a bushel”

That backsplash looks fancy. The pie doesn’t look bad either.

Yay for apples! We just finished this up this morning. It was all kinds of yummy. ^^

Caramel Apple Breakfast Pudding
Makes about 6-8 servings

2-3 tart apples, peeled, cored, sliced
¼ c water
¾ tsp ground cinnamon
½ c firmly packed brown sugar
2 tbsp light corn syrup (I used maple syrup, because that’s all we had in the house)
2 tbsp butter
¼ – ½ c chopped pecans
1 ¼ c milk
3 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
8-10 Italian bread slices (1/2 inch thick) or roughly twice as many baguette slices (1/4 – 1/2 inch thick depending on how bready you want it)

Place apple slices and water in small saucepan; bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low; cover. Simmer 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally until apples are tender. Drain in colander; transfer to small bowl. Gently stir in cinnamon; set aside.
Place brown sugar, corn syrup and butter in the saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, just until boiling. Remove from heat. Pour into 8-inch square baking dish. Sprinkle with pecans.
Mix eggs, milk, vanilla and nutmeg in medium bowl. Layer half of bread slices, all of apple slices and remaining bread slices in baking dish, trimming bread to fit. Pour egg mixture over bread, pressing down gently to moisten bread completely. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 3 hours or overnight.
Heat oven to 325F.
Bake uncovered 40-45 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from oven; loosen pudding from sides of dish. Let stand 15 minutes. If you’re being fancy, carefully invert pudding onto platter; spoon caramel mixture remaining in dish over pudding (or be like us, and serve straight from the dish). Serve warm or cool.

Cooking Light did a feature on apples this month that has tons of ideas, including an apple upside down cake.

I’m lazy, so I always make apple cobbler. I also like this apple mozzarella salad. It’s just apples, mozzarella (or string cheese), and sesame seed kernels (optional) tossed in balsamic vinegar. Ya know…I think that may be my lunch pretty soon.