Spiced Rum Apple Crisp

Ahhhh, fall... crisp weather, beautiful colors and ten bajillion apples.
Really, people, is it my imagination or are there apples everywhere you look?
Last week there were so many apples left from the conference that I took some home to create some sort of appley desert to bring into the office.
Now as we have discussed before, i am not a baker. I love to cook because cooking is art; however, baking is science and i just can't be bothered to precisely measure. I figured i'd go with some sort of Apple Brown Betty thing. In looking up cooking times for such things I discovered a recipe for Apple Crisp. Did you know that the Crisp was a popular dessert during WWII because it uses low amounts of shortening and sugar so it was easy to make even with food rationing? Neither did i. Anyhoo, i decided to use the basic Crisp recipe as a template.
A few weeks ago co-worker Jami had made a Bourbon Carmel Apple Pie that was fan-dam-tastic and fTM Felicia had been talking about cooking apples in butter and amaretto (really, there are apples everywhere), so i thought i might want to soak the apples in some sort of liquor to give them an added flavor layer. Spiced rum seemed a good choice, but when i went to the bar i found that i didn't have any spiced rum (except some Captain Morgan Private Stock that Rachel gave me that i didn't want to waste in a baking experiment that might be a colossal failure). But, i did have some mid-grade rum that i inherited when Justin moved that i normally wouldn't drink so i figured that i'd make my own.


i heart my Doughboy mixing bowl

 I peeled, sliced and diced a combination of McIntosh and Granny Smith apples (one for flavor and the other for consistency), mixed them with whole cloves and immersed everything in the rum to soak for about 30 minutes.


and adorable matching baking pan

 Meanwhile i mixed up the topping a la Niki - that is, with very little regard for the recipe. There was supposed to be some sugar, butter, flour and rolled oats. I mixed white and dark brown sugar, used margarine and had flour, but my choices for oats were either quick oats or steel cut oats. Of course, i used both. After adding the basic apple spices -nutmeg and cinnamon- i thought that since i didn't have true spiced rum i should give it a little kick with a tiny bit of cumin and cayenne.


i'll be seeing you later

 The leftover rum with cloves was drained back into the bottle and put in the fridge to see what would happen if i left it alone for a while.

The results were sampled while i phone-shopped with my BFF, as you should never take a baking experiment to work without trying it first. It tasted really good with the sweet and tart apples, tangy rum, smoky cloves and just a wee hint of spicy at the end. However, the Crisp part was just a little bit dry with a slightly grainy mouth feel, so the next day when i took it to work i served it piping hot with vanilla ice cream on top; the cold melted cream was the final piece it needed.


{so i just strained the cloves out of the rum last night and gave it a little taste; YUM!}