After Christmas

Slow Cooker Caramel Apple Crumble

Another Christmas has come and gone. It was a good one. We've had a house full of family since before Christmas. A good part of them will be here until "next year" as Little Sister tells me daily. I'm not sure she has grasped that's only a few days away.

I barely made any photos over the holidays, but rest assured that we had fun. Cookie baking, rock painting, jigsaw puzzles, lots of eating. And lots of sniffling. This could be called the "cold" Christmas since 50% of the crowd here had awful colds. And it was also 24 degrees when we woke up this morning. It's not getting much warmer for the next several days.

Cooking for nine is so different than my normal cooking for the two of us. Last night our crowd was down to seven and I just did a quick hot dog supper. Except I underestimated how many hot dogs we needed. It was a good thing I had made a dessert! It was the only dessert I've made during the entire holiday season. There seemed to be enough sweets coming into the house from other places, so I scratched the extra baking off my list.

This slow cooker recipe was sent to me several weeks ago by my knitting friend Paula. She hosts several knitting retreats around the country. I've been lucky enough to attend a few of these. And I've learned much from her excellent Knitting Pipeline podcast. If you're a knitter, check it out. 

This dessert was quick to put together, using ingredients I had on hand. And then for about five hours (4 hours cooking, 1 hour resting) I could ignore it all while I did other things in the kitchen. Unattended cooking is a lifesaver on busy days. While I cooked and cooked, the daughters took over the undecorating chores. Yay!

SLOW COOKER  CARAMEL APPLE CRUMBLE

For the apples:

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

5 large apples, peeled and cut into chunks

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

For the topping:

2/3 cup oats (I used old fashioned kind)

2/3 cup loosely packed brown sugar

1/4 cup flour

1/2 tsp cinnamon

3-4 T softened butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

1. In a mixing bowl. combine brown sugar, granulated sugar, apples, salt, and cinnamon. Spread onto bottom of slow cooker. (I sprayed bottom of cooker with PAM)
2. Mix topping ingredients until they come together. Sprinkle over top of apples.
3. Cook on low for 4 hours, or high for 2 hours.
4. Turn off heat and let sit, covered, for one hour to let the caramel thicken.

Paula's Note: I cut down the sugar so the sauce was not caramelized but still delicious. I think you have to use all the sugar to get the caramel. I also did not peel the apples. I washed them thoroughly and left the peels on.

Don’t forget the vanilla ice cream!

You see that Paula said she cut down on the sugar amount and the sauce didn't caramelize. I used the full amount and my sauce didn't thicken up either. But we had not one bite left! So don't worry about the sauce part. I did wonder if I uncovered it during the hour of resting time, the sauce might be a little thicker. Hmmm... I might just have to make it again soon to find out. (Isn't that a great excuse for dessert again soon?)

Now, we went a little Christmas crazy and added a scoop of peppermint candy ice cream to ours. (There was also vanilla ice cream here for the traditionalists.) My girls—the grownup ones—said they might like to spoon the apples over the ice cream next time, instead of the other way around. I would eat it either way!

There's a Daddy-O under there somewhere!