Test Kitchen

It's time for my first recipe test.
I plan on documenting any recipes I try that I find online or in a cook book. I will give you my opinion and post photos, even if it's a mess!

**I have only been baking for a few weeks. I have almost no knowledge of even the basic baking principals. I am going in blind, using an apartment stove and grocery store products.****

The first recipe I tried out was for individual apple crisps which I found HERE.

I wanted to try this because it is apple season and since there are only the two of us, me and my husband, there is no need for a full size crumble. (It might also be that I will end up eating too many portions if I'm faced with the choice!)

The recipe:

Yield: 1 Servings
1 sm Apple, peeled and sliced
1 tablespoon All-purpose flour
1 tablespoon Brown sugar
1 tablespoon Quick-cooking oats
1/8 teaspoon Ground cinnamon
ds Ground nutmeg
ds Salt
1 tablespoon Cold butter or margarine
Half-and-half cream OR
Ice cream, optional




Instructions:

Place apple in a small greased baking dish.
In a small bowl, combine the dry ingredients; cut in butter until crumbly.
Sprinkle over apple.
Bake, uncovered, at 375 for 30-35 minutes or until apple is tender.
Serve warm with cream or ice cream if desired.




I did tweek this a bit by adding some Grand Marnier into my ramekins.


And here is my result:



As you can see, not too pretty.
It tasted okay, but it really need to be fixed.

I tried it again, with my changes and it was so much better but I unfortunately forgot to take photos of it.
The changes I made were doubling all the dry ingredients and adding a bit more butter. It really needed the extra brown sugar because it was obviously missing sweetness.


Tips:

1. The apples will shrink. Don't be afraid to fill your dish with extra. I like to cut up different sizes because the smaller ones will reduce to a sauce and the bigger ones will leave a bit of a crunch

2. If you are going to add liquor, pour it over you apples.

3. You can add some lemon zest and lemon juice as well as it pairs nicely with apples and adds a fresh taste.

4. If you are serving this right out of the oven, make sure to let it cool down. You may think that it's cool enough to eat, but you can easily burn your tongue on an apple slice.

5. Make sure that you mix the butter with the ingredients. That is what lead to my mess above. You can see the flour and oats that haven't been cooked because it was not mixed with the butter.