Apple Brown Betty

Samantha’s Cookbook, p. 32

Butter to grease baking pan

4 large apples

1 ½ cups bread crumbs

½ cup brown sugar

3 tablespoons butter

Cinnamon

1/3 cup milk

1/3 cup butter

1/3 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat the oven to 375F. Spread butter over the bottom and sides of a 9-inch-square baking pan.

Peel the skins off the apples.

Insert an apple corer into the center of each apple and twist it to cut around the core. Then remove the cores from the apples.

Slice the apples into ¼-inch rings on a cutting board.

Cover the bottom of the baking pan with ½ cup bread crumbs.

Once you've peeled and sliced the apples, the hard part's over.

Arrange half of the apple slices on top of the crumbs.

Spring ¼ cup brown sugar on the apples.

Use a butter knife to cut 1 tablespoon of the butter into small pieces and lay them on top of the brown sugar. Sprinkle cinnamon on top.

You'll feel a little silly while you're cutting the butter up into tiny pieces. You'll get over it.

Add a second layer of bread crumbs and repeat steps 6 through 8.

Top the apple brown Betty with ½ cup bread crumbs and 1 tablespoon of butter cut into small pieces. Pour ½ cup milk evenly over the top.

Ready to go in the oven!

Bake the apple brown Betty on the center rack of the oven for 1 hour.

While the apple brown Betty bakes, begin to make a ‘hard sauce.’ Cut 1/3 cup butter into small chunks. Put them into a bowl to soften.

Remove the apple brown Betty from the oven. Let it cool in the baking pan while you finish making the sauce.

Add the powdered sugar to the softened butter. Press the butter and sugar against the side of the bowl. Then stir them until they are smooth and creamy. Stir in the vanilla.

After you smoosh it all around enough it'll start to look like this. Hard sauce indeed!

Dot the top of the warm apple Betty with hard sauce so the sauce melts. 

It really does start melting as soon as you put it down, so place it carefully!

Voila!

My Rating: 3/5 "Don't get me wrong: The hard sauce you put on this is one of the most delicious dessert things I've ever made. If I could eat it by itself by the spoonful I would. But I'm not sold on making a crisp with breadcrumbs. I know it's a traditional recipe and lots of people love it, but I wasn't a fan of the consistency. Nice flavor overall, though."