TWD – Cran Apple Crisps

I think I have a secret apparent love affair with all desserts with funny names. For those of you who need examples:

Crisp

Crumble

Fool

Grunt

Buckle

Slump… Get the picture??

Each incorporates fruits and makes them practically irresistible to me.  Now if only I can invent a fruit dish and call it a “Whoopsy” I think my life would be complete!!

So naturally I was all smiles and sunshine when it came time to make this weeks TWD recipe. I didn’t change much about the recipe: I doubled the cinnamon and subbed the ginger for nutmeg, added some cinnamon to the cran-apple filling, and added chopped almonds to the crumble topping. And boy, let me tell you… this was GOOD!!

I don’t think I have ever fully appreciated the cranberry in anything except juice UNTIL NOW! I’m a changed woman. Changed I say.

Their tart tanginess dances beautifully with the sweet apples and crunchy-nutty-aromatic crumble topping.

My only regret? Not having vanilla ice cream to top it off with.

You KNOW you want the recipe, so head on over to Em at The Repressed Pastry Chef and take a gander at her delish goodies.

TWD – Allspice Crumb (ptth) Muffins

Is there a muffin god? Because if there is… s/he doesn’t like me.

Is there a crumb god? Because if there is… s/he doesn’t like me.

My muffins came out dry as a bone and the crumb just melted into a mass of brown sugar gloppyness. To be fair, the dryness was my fault. I must have left them in too long or measured a bit too much flour. THAT, I can live with.

But the crumb? what. the. hell?! Twice, this is TWICE now that my brown sugar crumble didn’t stay crumbly!! WHAT AM I DOING WRONG??

On the plus side, I think the baking gods winced a bit at the face I made and the loud bang as I pulled out the muffin pan and threw it on my stove top. I hope I scared ‘em into submission because this is just… ridiculous!

The flavor of these is amazing. I added cinnamon (naturally) and I doubled the recipe because this was SUPPOSED to be breakfast for all of us that were moving the next day. 12 big muffins for after dinner dessert at the future mother-in-law’s house and 24 mini ones for breakfast. It was all so perfect. Or so I thought. I didn’t even have the heart to ask anyone to try one.

They weren’t horrible, I was just upset and pouting about my crumble.

If any of you have any trouble shooting pointers for my crumble… please, Please, PLEASE(!) send ‘em my way. I need them. For my sanity. And by proxy, yours as well

For now my dear sweet crumble…. I bid you…

PPPPPTTTTTHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

If you would like the recipe and a glimpse of what these are supposed to look like, visit Kayte at Grandma’s Kitchen table and oogle her other delicious goodies!! Click here for the recipe.

SMS – Apple Orchard Pecan (and almond) Crumble

Sometimes my train of thought makes no sense to anyone but me. And it ALWAYS makes perfect sense in my head. It’s that when I write it down that I realize how randomly scattered my thoughts are and I must find the link that connects them all.

I wrote it down and then edited it and then deleted it only to attempt it again. Without any chance of you understanding what the hell I was talking about. So I warn you… this might make NO sense

I’m going to link celery to crumbles. Stay with me….

I had these vivid flashbacks of eating a red version of celery with sugar as a child —> I set out to find what this “red celery-like” fruit/veggie/whatever was —> Fall upon a rhubarb crumble recipe and have an epiphany —> Aha! Its friggin rhubarb —> Scour the internets for a ridiculous amount of rhubarb recipes in light of said epiphany —> Run to numerous stores over the course of a few months searching for rhubarb and find none. NONE! —> Finally give up the witch hunt for rhubarb and sulk, sadly —> Pick up frozen bag of blueberries and almost fall to my knees with joy of finding a bag of rhubarb —> Purchase ramekins for personal sized crumbles for the rhubarb —> Never make said crumble —> Pine incessantly over wanting crumbles —> Reads this week’s SMS recipe —> REJOICE in crumbly euphoria.

Don’t look at me like that… I told you. I waaaaarned you. It makes NO SENSE. Mention crumble and I somehow come up with celery. But this is what runs through my head when I hear the word crumble. It makes sense to me. That’s all that counts, right? RIGHT?!

This crumble is quick to put together (provided you are an expert apple peeler and your nuts are already chopped) and tastes better the next day at room temperature (strictly my opinion). I am sad to report that there was NO VANILLA ICE CREAM or caramel drizzle ANYWHERE in my apartment, therefore my “perfect crumble” dreams…. crumbled. *sigh*

I think my crumble topping went south somewhere because it was more of a uniform-melty-nutty-caramely-crunchy-MASS than what I imagined. BUT maybe that’s what all of you came up with… or maybe I’m just a complete moron who can’t read and thinks of celery when “crumble” is mentioned.

Please visit Cristine’s delightful blog, Cristine Cooks for the recipe. Visit the SMS blogroll to see how the other bakers fared with this crumble.

Please excuse the pictures. It was night-time and there was obviously NO NATURAL LIGHT to speak of.