Almost Apple Picking at Bolton Spring Farm

Joe and I went to go apple picking at Bolton Spring Farms' yesterday. It was a beautiful fall day, just the right conditions for apple picking. The only thing was that once we got there, we found out they only had one size bag and one price for picking. We just didn't need a bushel of apples for $20! We decided to walk across the street to the farmstand and think it over. While standing there, deliberating about what to do we noticed we were standing in front of a table of seconds. We ended up buying a ½ peck of Paula red apples, 2 ½ pecks of Moonglow pears and a cheese pumpkin for under $8. I was so happy about the great deal that I forgot all about apple picking. As Joe said after "nothing cheers you up like a great deal."

By the way, how beautiful are moonglow pears?


The name alone makes them sound magical.

I've had Alice Medrich's book Pure Dessert on my "Bake from this soon" list for a while. Her recipe for Bea's apple crisp looked delicious, except Joe doesn't like orange zest and I didn't have dried apricots; so I had to omit those two items. Also, she calls for cubing the apple and leaving the skin on, but I prefer skinless apples in recipes like this. Here's my version of her recipe resulting in an exceptionally delicious apple crisp.

Apple Crisp adapted from Pure Dessert

Topping:

½ cup AP flour

½ cup rolled oats

Scant 1 cup coarsely chopped walnut pieces

½ cup sugar

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut small

1/8 teaspoon salt

Combine flour, oats, sugar and salt. Add butter and work it in with your fingers to pea sized pieces. Add walnut pieces

Filling:

11 Paula Red apples (they were small, so if you're using larger ones you may only need 6)

¼ to ½ cup sugar (depending on tartness of apples)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Peal, core and cut apples. Toss with cinnamon and sugar. Put in a buttered 2 quart dish. Top fruit with crumb topping. Bake at 350 for 1 ¼ hours to 1 ½ hours.