Apple Galore

So if you read the last post, I experimented with a raspberry crumble and it was a hit!  I was just going to post an update in the same post about it, but... well, this is Jeff's fault.  I was thinking aloud and said I was going to make a half-batch of the apple filling, and Jeff felt this was blasphemy.  Why make half the amount of apples when I could make them all?

Men.

So I gave in (who doesn't love baked apples?) and sliced two apples and diced six.  Why?  Well, we decided to make two different things.  The diced apples would be the apple filling in the crumble, while the sliced apples would be the base of a few small ramikins of apple crisp.  I mixed all the apple pieces with cinnamon, lemon juice, brown sugar, and nutmeg.  I let that sit in its juice while I made the crumble dough.  For some reason, the dough didn't ball up as nicely as yesterday.  It was much more like a pie dough today and less like a dough.  For those of you who don't know why that's annoying, it's because a pie dough is dry and breaks apart easily.

I managed to wrestle the dough into the 8x8 glass pan and spread it partially up the side.  I picked out all of the full apple slices and dropped those into the ramekins (it was the perfect amount), then spread the diced apples over the dough.

Uh oh... we had too much.  Upon hearing I had leftovers, Jeff reappeared in the kitchen and offered to clean those up for me.  I suggested that we try another Pinterest idea I had seen, and roll the apple filling in crescent rolls.  Jeff jumped all over that and he took charge of that one.  He kept them in rectangles and rolled them full of apple filling.

We didn't have any more apples after that, but we suddenly had 3 baking dishes of apple-y goodness.  Whoops.  :)

For the apple crumble, see the Raspberry Crumble post.  Instead of spreading the raspberry jam, you can spread the apple filling in the recipe below.  The recipe here shows a half-batch of the apple filling.  It's enough for the Crumble.  The rest of the recipes follow as well, but we just used remains of the full batch of apple filling (which you can find here).

Apple Filling
Adapted from the original here

4 medium to large apples, peeled and diced
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 tsp cinnamon
Dash of nutmeg

1. Peel and dice the four apples.  Dice into medium sized pieces.  I wasn't very careful about size.  
2. Mix them together with the rest of the ingredients together.  Allow to sit for a few minutes in its own juice.

Apple Crisp
Some apple filling (sliced apples, not diced)
Granola
1 tablespoon of butter cut into 8 small tabs
Brown sugar

1. Fill 4 ramekins with the apple filling, but do not fill to the top.  Stop about 1/4 inch from the top.
2. Place two small tabs of butter on top of the apples, then cover with granola.  Sprinkle brown sugar over each ramekin.
3. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes.  We drizzled some melted butter on it halfway through to help it hold together.  That's probably not necessary, but we did try it.  

Mini Apple Pies
Apple filling (diced apples)
1 package of crescent rolls
Sugar and cinnamon for sprinkling

1. Keep crescent rolls in 4 rectangles.  Spread apple filling thinly over crescents.  Roll gently, pressing the seams together to make sure nothing spills.
2. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.
3. While they're still warm, sprinkle some cinnamon and sugar over each one