If you like apple crumble or apple brown Betty, you will like this dessert; it is their cousin, made slightly more glamorous due to a thin layer of caramel running through the center of the dish. Since this is a dessert and I am slightly afraid of dessert making, I followed the inspiration recipe below more closely than I tend to follow recipes.
I was worried that the dessert would be too sweet so I did add dried cranberries and lemon juice to the recipe, and reduced both the amount of sugar and caramel. This resulted in a dessert that was still slightly too sweet for my palate so cannot imagine what the original might have been like.
3/4 cup + 2 Tbsps butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 3/4 cups + 2 Tbsps all-purpose flour
1 cup old-fashioned oats
1 + 1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
4 cups sour apples, peeled and diced
2 tsps lemon juice
8 oz best quality caramels
1/2 cup dried cranberries
Cream the 3/4 cup of butter together with the sugar until fluffy. Then add the 1 3/4 cups of flour, the oats, 1 teaspoon of the salt and the baking soda and stir to combine until the mixture looks like sand. Set aside.
Peel, core and chop the apples, add them to a separate bowl. Toss with the lemon juice and then with the 2 remaining tablespoons of flour. Set aside.
Preheat oven to 400.
Place the caramels, the remaining butter and salt In a microwave safe bowl and microwave, in 30 second intervals, until the caramels have melted. My microwave took one minute. Whisk to combine into a cohesive sauce. Set aside.
Press half of the oatmeal mixture into a 13" x9" pan. Stir up the apples one more time to redistribute the flour and pour over the oatmeal mixture. Sprinkle with the dried cranberries, which you can leave whole or chop.
Pour the caramel mixture over the top of the apples and top with the remaining oatmeal mixture. Press down lightly to ensure that the oatmeal is spread over the top of the apples up to the sides of the pan.
Bake for 25 minutes and allow to cool to room temperature before serving.
Inspiration recipe, here.
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