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Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Baking The Canadian's Way. Then My Way.


 

This afternoon The Canadian finally got around to doing something with the 8 million apples that have been invading my kitchen ever since our apple picking expedition a week ago. His one and only baking claim to fame is his apple crisp. I've been hearing about it for years so all week I've been encouraging him to show off his skills and get rid of all the darn apples. He finally agreed but he coincidentally lost his recipe. Frankly, I was shocked there was ever a recipe to begin with.

Not to be deterred, I googled an apple crisp recipe and set up my lap top on the counter for him to follow.





I don't know why I bothered. The only guideline he followed was the amount of sugar. And that was because he allowed me to measure it. Everything else was a free for all.

I can't even think about it without laughing out loud.

Here he was in his work clothes, in a grumpy mood, measuring flour in a liquid measuring cup. He needed 1 1/4 cup (according to the recipe) so he dumped the flour right on in the gigantic 4c liquid measuring cup. Apparently he poured too much so he proceeded to bang the entire thing on the counter repeatedly to compress it down to 1 cup and even it out.

The other 1/4 cup? He decided to use cake flour for that portion. Claims it makes it "more cakey and delicious."

He also didn't really feel the need to layer the apples with sugar and cinnamon as the recipe suggested. And forget measuring the apples...those are details he couldn't be bothered with.

And when he measured the cinnamon he shoved the measuring spoon in at such an angle that he lost most of the cinnamon upon removal. I'm not even sure he noticed.





At this point I was laughing so hard that I was crying. This he didn't appreciate at all. He kept turning his back to me and yelling "No pictures!"





When it came time to mix up the flour, brown sugar, oats and cinnamon he conveniently forgot that step too. Plus, he decided that the butter didn't need to be mixed in either.





And it definitely didn't need to be softened. No, slicing the cold, hard butter across the top would do just fine.





He did manage to bake it at the correct temperature, but decided to shave ten minutes off the specified cooking time. Why? I don't know.

Oh, and he added some last minute chocolate chips to the topping just to sweeten the deal.

He's awesome like that.





After his little escapade I set about making my own mini blueberry crisp. The crisp part sounded so good, but I hate apples so I substituted blueberries.

There weren't too many blueberries on hand so I dug out a small bowl and decided to make up my own recipe.

Now, I have never ever made anything in the kitchen without a very clear recipe to follow religiously. I was feeling rebellious and hungry so I decided to go for it.





I took a 6oz package of blueberries and made a thin layer. Then I coated it with a tablespoon of sugar and a sprinkle of cinnamon. I repeated that 3 times.





In a bowl I combined 2 tablespoons of oats, 2 tablespoons of brown sugar, 2 tablespoons of flour and a big shake of cinnamon. With my hands I worked in 1/4 stick of softened butter. Then I added 1/3 cup of chocolate chips. Don't blueberries and chocolate go hand in hand? I think I read that somewhere.





After pouring the dry ingredients over the top of the blueberries I baked it at 350 for 45 minutes.





I don't know what blueberry crisp or blueberry tart is supposed to taste like, but this tasted like heaven. Perfect for two people. Or one hungry girl like myself.





Part tart, part sweet, part awesome.

Go ahead and try it. The blueberry crisp I mean. Don't even bother trying to recreate The Canadian's concoction. It's sealed in the recipe vault forever....you wouldn't be able to do it justice.

You can thank me later.

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