Autumn Delight!

It’s the week before Thanksgiving and as luck would have it, we’re getting ready to head out of town. Yup, we’re going to be on vacation for Thanksgiving which means I won’t be getting my favorite sausage stuffing this year. Well at least not ON Thanksgiving. Trust me it’s getting made. Anyway, I had some apples I needed to use up before leaving tomorrow so I looked in my mom’s recipe books. Sure enough there was something called Autumn Delight which looked relatively simple and quick.

My first impressions upon reading this recipe were: this must be one of those recipes which was handed down, and I’ll need to be a little wary. The recipe as written is very short, doesn’t have an ingredient list, and is rather vague. Having come across some of these before I knew I had to pay attention. If it’s an old recipe it could have overcompensation in it or lack a key instruction. For example, a pork recipe from 30 years ago will have you overcook the meat compared to today’s standards. With this recipe there were two things which jumped out at me. No mention of what SIZE pan to put the apples and dough in and no ratio for the spice mix; it just said ‘3 Tbs sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg.’ Ah, the old ways of measuring.

I was also skeptical of the syrup. The instructions just said to mix ingredients together, boil, then pour into the pan. No reducing like when you usually make a syrup. For the most part it’s just hot sugar water. And it’s A LOT of syrup for an 8×8 baking dish (again, the size of the baking dish was not given in the recipe). I thought there was no way the whole pot of syrup fits and it must be a typo. So, I hedged and poured in half. At around the halfway point of baking I checked the dish and wouldn’t you know, the syrup had been soaked up in the dough. So I poured in the rest. Still seemed like a lot though.

And it was. But not as bad as I thought. You can probably get away using about ¾ of the syrup and be fine. Other than that, the Autumn Delight turned out delightful. It’s kind of like a cobbler but with the apples wrapped up and baked in biscuit dough. The syrup keeps the bottoms nice and moist and yes, the whole thing is excellent with vanilla ice cream.

Autumn Delight (6 servings)

• 2 C flour
• ¾ C milk
• 6 Tbs Crisco/shortening
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 3-4 apples; peeled, cored, and sliced
• 2 Tbs sugar
• ¾ Tbs cinnamon
• ¼ Tbs nutmeg
• 2 C water
• 1 ½ C sugar
• 1 Tbs butter

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Mix flour, milk, shortening, baking powder, and salt together into a ball of dough.

Roll out into a square or rectangle, about ½ inch thick. In a bowl mix the sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg together. Spread half of the mixture over the dough. Layer the apple slices on the dough then sprinkle the remaining sugar mix on top of the apples.

Roll the dough up like a jelly roll. Slice ¾ inch cross-sections and lay flat in a buttered 8×8 baking dish.

Make a syrup of the water, sugar, and butter. Bring to a boil and pour over the apples in the dough.

Bake for 40 minutes. Serve warm with whipped cream or ice cream.