Maple Brown Sugar Apple Crisps

I love fall. The cooler, blustery weather, the colors of the changing trees, the late-season vegetables and fruits, it's difficult to think of something that I don't like about this season. I don't mind the shorter days and long, dark nights, as they contribute to a delicious sense of coziness as I sit on my couch wrapped in flannel while something tasty and fragrant with the special smells of autumn cooks in the kitchen.

We're well into fall now, and I thought I'd celebrate this autumnal mood with apples. I took a trip to my favorite local orchard, Navarino Orchard, and picked up 1/2 a bushel of my favorite baking apple, Northern Spies, and two sugar pumpkins. On the drive home, my mind was filled with all the different dishes I'd be making: pumpkin gingerbread is one likely suspect, and my Pie for Breakfast Apple Pie is another.

I had a hankering for that lovely maple brown sugar combination with the tart apples, so I made these individual apple crisps.

Maple- Brown Sugar Apple Crisps

Ingredients:

• 2 apples - I used 2 Northern Spies.
  
• 4 maple sugar candies, pulverized to a fine powder (about 2 T maple sugar)
  
• 2 T brown sugar


• 1/2 cup walnuts
• 1/4 cup oats
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 T butter, melted
  

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.


2. Put the pulverized maple sugar candy and the brown sugar into a bowl. Mix well.


3. Peel and slice the apples into very thin slices. Add to the sugar mixture in the bowl and toss well with a fork, making sure the pieces are all coated.


4. Put the mixture into greased ramekins. This made enough for three.


5. In a food processor, pulse the walnuts until coarsely ground.


6. Add the oats and pulse again until the mixture resembles bread crumbs.


7. Dump this mixture into the same bowl that held the apple mixture. The bowl should still have some of the maple / brown sugar mixture in it. Stir well.
   


8. Add about 1/4 cup of brown sugar (I usually add it in tablespoon increments and taste as I go) and mix well.
   


9. Add the melted butter, and work with your hands or a pasty cutter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.


10. Divide between the three ramekins, packing down the crumb topping firmly.


11. Bake in a 375 oven for 25 minutes or until it's bubbling nicely around the edges.


12. Take out and let cool on a rack for a bit and then serve warm topped with vanilla ice cream. You can serve it in the ramekin or scoop it out into a larger bowl.
    

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