Last weekend heralded the start of November, my favorite month with my favorite holiday: Thanksgiving. And it's also when I start thinking about what desserts I want to make for our Thanksgiving meal. There'll be 15 of us this year which is neither the smallest or largest family gathering we've had but still a good number. Normally I do my standbys of Pumpkin Upside Cake with Caramelized Pecans and Cranberries, Butter Pecan Tarts, Banana Butterscotch Cupcakes and Lemon Bars.
But this year I wanted to do something different and started exploring new recipes. I normally don't bake pies but I love apple pie and thought I'd try this recipe for individual-size apple crisp cups. They looked so pretty on Princess Pinky Girl's blog and I thought, "yeah, I could make those for Thanksgiving." Ha. I was only half right. I really could make those but apparently I didn't specify to the baking gods that I wanted mine to look as good as hers.
Things were good at first. The graham crackers crusts were easy to make and I made them in my mini cheesecake pan with the removable bottoms so there'd be no issue with getting them out of the pan. But I decided to get a little creative with the apple filling (you just went "uh-oh", didn't you?). I had caramelized apples before and I knew what I liked so what could go wrong? Yeah, never ask that question if you don't actually want it to be answered. Because I'll tell you what went wrong. First, I shouldn't have used Granny Smith apples. They're great in pies and crisps because they're tart and can offset a lot of the sweetness. But unfortunately they also soften and wilt faster than other apples and don't look pretty. Ask me how I know. Yup, my second mistake was cooking them too long. Instead of baking them as the original directions specified, I decided I could better control the cooking if I sauteed and caramelized them in my cast iron skillet. Well.....it seemed like a good idea at the time.
It might have actually worked if I had only sauteed them for a few minutes. But I didn't want them to be crunchy so I keep cooking them. And they went from pretty to overcooked, limp and cooked down in a flash. Oops. I spooned them into the graham cracker cups and they looked so-not-pretty that I decided to make a streusel topping for them. Then they'd be more like a crisp but at least I could hide their appearance, right? Uh, that might've been mistake #3. I made up the streusel recipe and I think I had too much flour and not enough butter because instead of the streusel lumps I envisioned dropping over the limp apple filling, it was more like powdery streusel dust. Eeep.
I baked them anyway because at a certain point, there's just no stopping a train wreck. When I took them out of the oven, they were beyond not-pretty so instead of a caramel sauce, I drizzled the leftover sauce from caramelizing the apples over the streusel. Have you followed me so far? I made the streusel to hide the overcooked apples and I drizzled "caramel sauce" over the streusel to hide the streusel. In appearance, these are unfortunately not going to make it to the Thanksgiving table because I need something a little more cute! However, taste-wise, the main reason I left my recipe modifications as is below, is these were actually pretty tasty. A bit ironic but at least it wasn't a total failure. And it reaffirms why I'd rather focus on how something tastes than how it looks. If you do want to make these for public appearance, I advise learning from my mistakes: use a firmer apple, don't overcook them, and either skip the streusel or cut back on the flour.
Crust
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
12 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 cup powdered sugar
Filling
2 cups peeled, cored and finely chopped apples
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Crumble topping
1/4 cup butter, chilled
1/4 cup flour (or less)
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
caramel topping, homemade or storebought, optional
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Grease mini muffin pans with nonstick cooking spray.
- Melt butter. In a medium-size bowl, mix graham cracker crumbs, powdered sugar and butter with a spoon.
- Evenly distribute mixture among the 24 mini muffin cups. Press along the bottom and sides to make a "cup". Bake for 5 minutes and let cool; keep in muffin tins.
- Mix apples, granulated sugar, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg in a bowl.
- Bake in a baking dish for 15 minutes at 375 degrees F until apples are slightly softened or "stir fry" in a cast iron skillet for several minutes; avoid overcooking the apples.
- Scoop a teaspoon or so of the apple mixture and spoon into the graham cracker crust cups.
- Combine crumble topping ingredients and squeeze into large clumps to sprinkle over the apples in each cup.
- Bake for 5-8 minutes at 350 degrees F or until streusel is golden brown (if using).
- Let cool completely. Use a knife to loosen from the pan and remove. Drizzle with caramel topping (or leftover caramel sauce from the apples) and serve.