Crunchy Apple Dessert

Happy Fall! Though the Fall season doesn't technically begin until next week, Fall was in the air this weekend. Football, a trip to the apple orchard, perfect weather and a bonfire -- a recipe for fun.

With my fridge fully stocked with apples (Michigan ones.....the local orchard lost 70% of their crop this year to inclement weather)  I began the first in a series of apple-related notebook recipes. Today's installment is a hand-written recipe at the bottom of a well-splattered page. Whether or not Grandma ever made this one I don't know but it was worth a try.

Crunchy Apple Dessert 

1 cup sugar
1 T flour
1 t baking powder
2 eggs, separated
1 cup diced apples
1 cup nut meats
1 t vanilla
1/4 t salt

Sift dry ingredients. Add well-beaten yolks, diced apple, nuts, salt, and vanilla. Mix well. Carefully fold in beaten egg whites. Bake slowly, 1 hr. 350.


Upon the first read I figured this dessert would come out cobbler-like. At the store I stocked up on vanilla frozen yogurt and cool whip as accompaniments, the rest I had on hand.

Sift dry ingredients -- sift sugar? Ok, if the recipe says so. There was only 1 tablespoon of flour listed plus the salt and baking powder, in the sieve it went with the sugar. Done. One cup of apple? I put in a bit more, two apples total. One cup nut meats? I chose pecans and I coarsely chopped them. On to the eggs. I found the egg white thing to be strange but I dutifully hauled out the stand mixer and whipped the egg whites until soft peaks formed and yes, I carefully folded them into the rest of the ingredients listed. The batter came together nice -- oops -- almost forgot the vanilla. No pan size was listed so I pulled out a Pyrex pie plate, lightly coated it with cooking spray. Did they have that in the early 50s? No time to research that. Into the oven.

I napped on the porch. I awoke to the fragrant apple-pie-type-smell and took the dish out of the oven, nicely browned.

After dinner, moment of truth. I scooped the dessert into bowls and topped with vanilla frozen yogurt. Would it pass the test?

Crunchy Apple Dessert

Sadly, no. The taste was slightly confusing. Was it a cobbler or pecan pie? The nutty taste and the lack of apples really put it into the pecan-pie-with-no-crust category. If you are a fan, this might be a recipe for you but for me the texture was palatable, made light with the addition of the beaten egg whites, but nothing outstanding. The apples sort of disintegrated and it lacked the hearty apple substance I was looking for. No problem. There are plenty more apples in the drawer!


Soup Can Score -- One out of Five Soup Cans