Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Bloomin' Baked Apples

Hello all! What a week it has been already! I finished my last week of college this week! Hoorah! Now I have more time for activities! Woohoo! I am going to a steam punk ball on Saturday and have made all my costume pieces myself, when I am all done I will have to share all the details with you guys!

Today though I have a Pinstrosity for you! Tali sent this one to us and I got a giggle out of it, and learned a few things! Check it out!
The Original


Doesn't this bloomin' apple look amazing?! Pause for the cause diet, there is a new obsession in town!


Here is what Tali had to say about her attempt:

The Pinstrosity


"Ok, so for days before Halloween, I've been seeing these great looking desserts all over for Blooming Apples.  I love apples, caramel, butter, and sugar so it's a not brainer to try. 
Some friends had a Halloween party, which is the perfect time to do this!  I grabbed the ingredients (though I did switch the Honey Crisp apples for Granny Smith).  I prepped the apples, which took far longer than I anticipated.  Then I prepped the topping.  Caramel- done.  Butter and sugar mix- microwave, seems simple.  I may have skimmed over the part about slowly melting the butter, letting it get really melted.  I also neglected the flour (pure oversight).  I mixed the sugar, added cinnamon, and topped my apples.  The topping was more runny than in the picture, but I went with it, blaming it on butter that was melted too much.  

The timer was set, then friends with a newborn stopped by.  I held that sweet baby for a while, marveling in the tininess until the timer went off.  My friend (the host) checked the apples and as I said, "They may need more time," she laughed and said they were done.  It was a bit later before I saw my creation.  Oops.  The flour would have helped, as would an aluminum foil tent, with the oven rack lowered.  The taste was great- caramel yumminess, but I will have to practice this to make it look prettier.  The rest of the night I had fun telling people there were caramel apples in the kitchen, only to listen to them laugh when they saw them!  A mess this epic is pretty rare for me, so it made it more fun. "
The only real red flags I see here is the missing flour and the runny butter. I really don't feel like those two oversights would create the end result we see above though. Perhaps the oven was too hot, or Tali put the timer for the 45 minutes (maximum time) instead of the 25 minutes as the suggested start time? I can't be sure because she didn't specify, but those apples look pretty toasty! No worries if that's the case, I do that kind of stuff all the time. That's what I get for multitasking, haha! They are also only toasty on the tips?? I'm not sure what that means in baking-land, where are all our baking experts?? Can you help us out on this one? Where else can we improve this recipe folks? I'm thinking I'm going to try this one out during Christmas festivities! I will be sure to check back in with you all and let you know how it goes!
Happy Wednesday all! Happy baking!




5 comments:

  1. Hmmm... okay... the combination of apple type and skipping the flour might make things damper and messier, since Honey Crisps have an especially high water content, and that flour would have helped thicken the "sauce."

    The flour might also have made the butter-sugar mixture a bit slower to burn, though I wouldn't be money on that. If your oven temperature's off by a bit or the apples are left in the oven a few minutes too long, I think you're stuck. This isn't an obvious case of major user error, though.

    My thought is that this recipe should have the apples set in a cake pan with a rim, and then the cake pan should be set in a larger pan that has water in it. This stabilizes the temperature a bit and also makes the oven atmosphere more moist, so the central caramels might be less likely to incinerate themselves. Stick with tart baking apples, remember the flour, and watch it like a hawk after the first 25 minutes.

    (But it also could have just had one of those "the bear eats you" days -- they happen in the kitchen.)

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    1. And yay for Emilee finishing college! (Hey, I was distracted by a COOKING problem!)

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  2. Forgetting the flour made it runny. Flour is a thickener and a binder. Oh, also juicier apples might need a pinch more flour, and drier apples a pinch less, they vary. As for the "well done" tips, lowering the oven rack, turning down the temp to 350 instead of the 375 stated, or a foil tent would all help. Ovens can be twitchy things, checking it with an oven thermometer to make sure it actually runs at the temperature stated isn't a bad idea on an older oven, the thermostats only last so long. With a new recipe, checking things early and often (preferably through a window as much as possible, but sometimes you gotta let the heat out and peek in) is always a good idea.
    Oh, and right before a party, isn't the perfect time to test a new recipe. Unless you have some tried and true backups handy quickly. When I'm most in need of a recipe to work, is when a new recipe will bomb royally on me, despite all precautions. :-/ Frustrating example of Murphy's law.

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  3. It looks like the tips were the only parts to get the sugar mixture on them.

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  4. I made this recipe, and it turned out okay, but I wouldn't make it again. First, the apples were really hard to cut into that blossom shape. Second, my flour/butter/sugar mixture also turned out runny, even WITH the flour. Third, the caramels did not melt completely, and as soon as the apples are cool enough to eat, the caramel is starting to set back into a thick and chewy texture.

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