Apple Betty Recipe

Apple Betty is an old-fashioned dessert that we don't hear a lot about these days. I think that is sad, because Apple Betty is quick, easy, and tasty. What more could a person want?  I am not sure why recipes for Apple Betty have fallen off of today's radar, but recipes can be found online and in church cookbooks and vintage cookbooks.

Another name for this dessert is Apple Brown Betty.Here are a few facts about Brown Betty that I found at Wikipedia:

"A Brown Betty is a traditional American dessert made from fruit (usually apple, but also berries or pears) and sweetened crumbs. Similar to a cobbler or a bread pudding, it consists of a baked pudding made with layers of sweetened and spiced fruit and buttered bread crumbs. It is usually served with a lemon sauce or whipped cream.

The dish was first mentioned in print in 1864.^[1] A recipe from 1877 uses apple sauce and cracker crumbs.^[2]

Apple Brown Betty was one of the favorite desserts of Ronald and Nancy Reagan in the White House.^[3]

Peggy Hill from the show King of the Hill likes to make apple brown betty."

Apple Betty is similar to a crisp, but it does not have oats in the topping. It is also similar to a cobbler, but the topping does not rise like a biscuit. Served cold or warm with milk, cream, or ice cream, Apple Betty has the essence of pie without the bother of making a crust. Here is my version, why not give this fall treat a try?

Apple Betty

4 cups of baking apples*, sliced
1/4 cup apple cider
3/4 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 tablespoons butter

Place sliced apples in a lightly greased pie pan.
Pour cider over the apples.
Combine flour, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg in a mixing bowl.
Cut in butter with 2 knives until mixture is crumbly.
Place crumb mixture over apples.
Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes or until apples are tender.


Do you have bread that is getting dry? This Apple Betty recipe from about.com uses bread crumbs instead of flour. I do have bread to use up, so I am going to grate it into crumbs to see if I like this recipe as well as I do my "Tried and True".

*Cortland, Granny Smith, Jonathan, and Yellow Delicious are good choices for this dish (or a combination of several).

Marcheta *Betty's Friend

Making Apple Cider, Part 4

“It's time to walk to the cider mill
Through air like apple wine,
And watch the moon rise over the hill,
stinging and hard and fine.”

     ~ Stephen Vincent Benét, John Brown’s Body

 

Part 4

Thirty bushels of apples have been picked, sorted, loaded, driven to the cider mill, unloaded, washed, chopped, mashed, and squeezed. Their dry innards have been fed to cows. What's left?

 

Why, the good part, that's what!

 

Every drop of juice gets piped to a large holding tank that is fitted with a row of spigots.

 

Bottling (or in this case, jugging) the cider is not quite as hairy of a chore as the one Lucy and Ethel faced with trying to keep up with boxing chocolates, but it does take a certain rhythm and several people to do the job efficiently. The good part about it is that if for some reason a person gets behind, say in capping for instance, each individual spigot can be opened and closed when needed. Jim never likes to be idle, so he generally helps bottle the cider.

 

 

Remember the big crates? Now empty of apples, it begins to fill with the finished product.

 

 

 

 

The jugs get rinsed off before adding another layer. When the order has been completed, the crate is then hauled back to the loading dock, and each jug has to be taken out and placed in the crates that we used for bringing the apples to the mill.

 

 

The 30 bushels of apples are now 112 gallons of fresh, sweet apple cider. All that is left for us is to hustle to get it sold. Some of our loyal customers have been with us from the start and, to them, getting their "Gibson Cider" means that Autumn is truly here. I am so thankful for them, as well as our newer customers and, of course, NorthSide Farmers Market. Our work would not be possible without them.

 

If you think that I am done blabbing about cider...better think again! Sure, apple cider is delicious as is, but it does not need to stop there. The next post will give recipe ideas.

 

Marcheta *...work is never done, never done.....

 

 

How D'Ya Like Them Apples?

Here's a look at what my market stand "sometimes" looks like. Usually I have the tables covered, but the covers were being used for a photography display at The Cracked Pot store in Galion. 

Also, last week was an "off" week for cider.

But the thing is, not only do I help in picking these apples, I have to look at each one while sorting. That's a WHOLE LOT of decisions to make! No wonder that my brain stays fried during harvest season...LOL.

Marcheta *yep. yep. yep. nope. yep.

Hidden Stars

I think that there may be as many stars right here on Earth as there are in our galaxy, The Milky Way. These stars are hidden from everyday, ordinary viewing, which makes discovering them so delightful.

The star in today's picture is the center of this apple's universe. Cut any apple through the middle and you'll find a star, too. 

Just think, true to its core, each tiny seed has the power to produce a full-sized apple tree, that eventually could produce four or more bushels of apples a year, with a star for each apple's heart! If that isn't something amazing, I don't know what is.

Ohio's countryside is dotted with apple orchards, from large commercial operations to smaller hobby ones, like ours. We have John Chapman's vision to thank for our bounty. Chapman, aka "Johnny Appleseed" spent a great deal of time establishing Ohio's first orchards. His legend is alive today in the heart of the fruits he loved best, making him a true Star of the Orchard. 

Marcheta *star-struck

Bag Lady

Over the holiday weekend, Jim and I went to several swap meets and festivals. The activities were as diverse as day and night. 

Saturday morning I was set up at 'Lil Farmers Market in Bucyrus. At the close, Jim came to help me pack up, then we had a nice lunch at Carle's Bratwurst before going over to Hobo Days at Bucyrus' historic train depot. The depot is in the process of being restored, and it is amazing. Back at home, I did nothing for the rest of the day. I know, right? Fruit allover the place begging to be made into sauces and jams, and I totally ignored it! 

Along with the (huge!) swap meets at Gibsonburg, on Sunday we went to the Polka, Perogie, and Perch Festival at Port Clinton, held at the same time as the Tall Ships re-enactment of Perry's victory at 'sea' (Lake Erie) during the War of 1812. We finished the day by going to Marblehead Lighthouse and driving through beautiful Ohio farmland on the way home.

On Monday we headed south and went to two swap meets in Johnstown. The swap meet at a sportsmen's club was the largest I have ever seen: a virtual sea of canopies that housed everything under the sun. At one booth I found a box of apple bags, which was a happy find. Most booths at this swap meet were hunting related, being at a sportsmen's club, it made sense. It turned out that the vendor bought the box of bags at an auction because it was combined in a lot that had other things that he wanted.   We ended our two day "staycation" by taking the long way home so that I could spend time with nature photography at Killdeer Plains Wildlife Area. 

All-in-all, it was a very nice Labor Day weekend, even if we weren't able to spend it with our kids.

I am so happy that I found these bags. We are much too small to buy orchard supplies unless we want to pay big bucks for smaller quantities. My method so far has been to line quart baskets with food storage bags, and then put larger quantities in appropriate sized baskets (such as half peck, peck, half bushel, etc.).

 I had to be careful when packing the apples to take to market, to keep the varieties together in case I have a helper with me who is not familiar enough with each kind to recognize them on sight alone. 

Now, with my apple bags, that is not a problem because there is place on the bags identify the type. Even with taking time to mark each bag, my sorting time was cut in half today.

HOORAY

But, the best part is that these are bags made for storing apples (with holes in them), meaning that my customers can pop the bags right in their fridges.

So professional...I hardly know how to act.

I don't know how market customers are going to react to this new system. What was good about the basket system is that people could see the apples because the liners were folded under. Today I am taking baskets with me and when I set up, pop the new bags in them to see how they display. It will help keep the tables tidy, I know that much. Even with this extra step, I am ahead of the game because it will not take that long AND everything will fit in my car better. Gone are the worries that if I have to stop quickly all the fruit will go flying (as it has before...believe me!).

So, today I am a happy (apple sortin') camper

Marcheta *bag lady and proud of it :)

Cryogenic Apples

 

Apples do well in deep freezes. For instance:

 



 

From This:

 

 

 

 

To  This:

 

 

To This:

 

 

 

Here's part of the path:

1. buds are hibernating in winter's frigid temperatures
2. harvested apples are sliced and stored in a freezer
3. TA DA!  while new buds hibernate, we enjoy a hot apple crisp!

The months between sleeping buds and hot desserts include a lot of work, of course. Pruning, spraying, mowing, harvesting, freezing.

Is it worth it?

Yeah, Baby, Yeah!


Marcheta *smacking lips

P.S. need to leave now, will post an update later today with apple crisp recipe. Promise.