Apple Pie Energy Bites

These energy bites are pretty good.  I made them mostly in the Vitamix.

Toast 1/2 cup sliced or slivered almonds, 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, and 1/4 cup old-fashioned oatmeal in the oven at 350 degrees F. until they are barely lightly browned, around ten minutes but watch them carefully.  You may be tempted to skip this step, but that is not a good idea.  The flavor is remarkably improved.

In food processor or Vitamix, chop 3/4 cup dried apple slices that have been cut up somewhat, and 1/2 cup pitted dates.  I used Medjool dates.  Pulse until pretty finely chopped.

Add 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract, 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice or nutmeg, and 1/4 teaspoon salt plus the nuts and oatmeal and pulse some more until you like the texture.

Put into a bowl then use a  small portion scoop if you want, or take a teaspoon of the "dough" and roll into a ball and place on a cookie sheet.

If you want to be fancy, immediately roll each ball in flaked coconut.  They are good without the coconut, though.  I made a double batch.

The ones I made should have been pulsed more to make them smoother, but still, they worked and were mostly eaten.

Food Friday: Slow Cooker Apple Pie Cake!

With the advent of slow cookers in the missionary apartments, and having just seen a recipe for slow cooker Apple Pie Cake, I had to try it to see if was worth giving to the missionaries for their recipe archive.

Since I had the same Crock Pot as the missionaries this was a no-brainer to try.  The original recipe is in the link above.  This is what I did:

Apple Pie Cake

5 apples-I used Jazz apples, peeled, cored, and sliced and placed them in the slow cooker ceramic bowl.

In a small bowl, mix 1/4 cup sugar and 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon.  Sprinkle the cinnamon-sugar over the apples and, WITH A WOODEN SPOON, stir well to coat all the apple pieces with cinnamon sugar.

In a medium or larger bowl, place one box of dried cake mix. I used Betty Crocker Yellow Cake Mix.  Melt 1/2 cup butter and stir into the cake mix, making it a nice crumble texture.  You will probably need to use your hands, but be prepared...it sticks to  your hands.

Pour half of the crumble mix over the apples and stir in gently with the wooden spoon.  Arrange the apple mixture in an even layer then spread the remaining cake mix and butter mixture over the top more or less evenly. 

Set the timer to 2 1/2 hours on low.  At the end of the time, pierce some apples to see if they are ready to eat.  Mine were not so I put it cooking another hour. It did not take a full extra hour.

REMEMBER:  don't lift the crock pot cover after you set it timing or you will be adding to the cooking time.

Things I will do differently next time:
1.  I will increase the cinnamon to 1 teaspoon in the apples.
2.  I will also add cinnamon to the cake mix itself.  You cannot get too much cinnamon.  Just cooking fills your head with that wonderful aroma and is good enough.  You don't even need to eat the pie cake to get the benefit of that cinnamon.
3.  I will use softened butter instead of melted butter to see if I can made a more crumbly cake mix mixture rather than a globby cake mix mixture.
4.  I will probably try a different apple.  These Jazz apples were pretty sweet. I much prefer tart apples, or at least on the more tart end of the spectrum.

Munchie Monday: Vacation Apple Pie

On vacation away from home, food is always an issue.
 
You can eat out.  (Expensive...)

You can eat in.   (You need to bring equipment, food, spices.)

You can fast.  (For a weekend, possibly...but probably not if you are going to be gone for a week.)

We always take food and kitchen stuff with us.  Too much stuff.  This vacation we took way more than we ever had before, including at least a peck of fresh utility Macoun apples.  They were good apples but we were not going to eat that many fresh apples.  What to do, what to do?

We chose to make an apple pie.  This is how:

Went to the store for a frozen pie shell.

Preheated the oven to 350 degrees F.

Peeled, cored, sliced 6 apples and put in large bowl with about 1/2 cup granulated sugar (from vacation supply bin) then added 1 1/2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon (purchased at The Dollar Tree store).  Put the prepared apples into the pie shell.

Took 1 1/1 cups of Rip's Big Bowl cereal, sans the spoon sized Shredded Wheat, and crumbled it with 2 tablespoons butter (brought from home) and 3 tablespoons granulated sugar (same vacation supply bin).  Mixed these ingredients until well combined and sprinkled over the apples.

Put pie in oven on top of cookie sheet that was in the unit.  If there had been no cookie sheet in the unit, we would have found a disposable one at The Dollar Tree.  Pies ALWAYS spew over the top.  It is unconscionable to make a terrible mess in the oven that the service staff will have to clean up.  Seriously. 

Bake for 45 minutes or so.  Insert a fork or knife into the apples to see if they are tender.  If not, let it cook another ten minutes or so.  Our oven did the job in just over 45.

It was not a perfect pie , but it was better than nothing, and a sweet treat to have for dinner a couple of nights.