I have been the fortunate recipient of a very large box of crab apples…
Unfortunately most of them aren’t ripe…
Having been picked a couple weeks too early, they are quite sour. In my efforts to use them up, I have been cooking the apples to sweeten them and using them as an oatmeal topping. As I was cooking the apples, it dawned on me “why am I not posting this on the blog?”. Of course, once that crossed my mind, I grabbed my camera and took a few shots so I could share it with all of you wonderful people!
Just cooking the apples would be boring, so I add some apple pie spice I made the other week, along with brown sugar and water. Cooking everything down to create a delicious apple pie-esque topping and syrup! Talk about delicious!
Apple Pie Oatmeal
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup of chopped apples
- 1 tbsp butter
- 1/2 tbsp apple pie spice
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 1/2 cup of water
- 1/2 cup quick oats
- 1 cup water
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- Apple Pie Spice
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- *This makes about 1/3 cup of spice which I store in a jar and sprinkle in things like oatmeal, french toast batter, whipping cream and more!
- 5 tbsp cinnamon
- 11/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp all spice
- 1 tsp ginger
- 1 tsp cardamom
Instructions
- Combine ingredients for apple pie spice into a jar, shaking to combine. If you would rather not use apple pie spice, you could do a simpler version, just using cinnamon.
- Place a pan on medium heat, adding a tablespoon of butter.
- While pan is heating, chop your apples into small chunks.
- Place apples in pan, mixing in with butter, and cooking for about 5 minutes until they begin to soften.
- Sprinkle in apple pie spice and brown sugar, mixing into the apples, then pour 1/2 a cup of water into the pan.
- Cook until much of the water has reduced, turning into a syrup like consistency.
- While apple mixture is reducing, cook your oatmeal according to the package directions. I used 1/2 a cup of oatmeal, with 1 cup of water and microwaved for about 2 minutes.
- Once oatmeal and apple mixture is cooked, sprinkle the apples and syrup on your oatmeal and enjoy!
Enjoy!
Bob
Crab apples make the best apple jelly – you control the sugar – I always prefer mine not so sweet (like store bought) and this way is perfect – more apple flavor than sugar.
I have always have a bunch of sour crab apples, aside form hard cider I also cook them up with cabbage, brown sugar, soy sauce, ginger, and porkchops and it mellows them out pretty well. I guess i should probably post that one on leblog soon too.
Hard cider is a great idea! I think I might have to try that.