Apple Brown Betty with Oats

Trevor’s birthday was last week and he isn’t much of a cake person to say the least. He will lovingly taste-test most of the cupcakes I make, but I’m usually stuck eating them myself because he finds them too sweet (this is why cake and cupcakes rarely show up on this blog). However, I think this might also have to do with his milk allergy as not too many frosted cake/cupcake recipes are dairy free.

He is, however, a very big fan of desserts involving baked fruit. I didn’t have the ingredients to make a pie, but I did have the ingredients to make Apple Brown Betty.

…..Or so I thought. I was just starting to pull out all the ingredients when I realized I had no breadcrumbs. I’m not usually one to buy breadcrumbs either as they tend to be overpriced for what they are and simple enough to make at home with leftover dried bread. For all the times we have leftover end pieces of loaves of bread around the apartment, this time it wasn’t the case. There wasn’t an end slice anywhere. In a panic, I googled “breadcrumb substitute” and came across a baking forum where someone said they used wheat germ instead of breadcrumbs. This would be perfect as I have a large bag of wheat germ in the fridge for my daily breakfast of overnight oats.

…….Or so I thought. I needed 2 cups of wheat germ, but I barely had a cup. I was at my wits end and really wanted to make this dessert.

This was when I noticed the bag of oatmeal in the cupboard and got an idea. Instead of using 2 cups of breadcrumbs, I would use 1 1/2 cups of oats and just add a little more water before it went into the oven. It would be similar to an Apple Crisp recipe, only less margarine and no flour.

The dessert came out a success! With the brown sugar and spices, Trevor couldn’t even tell that it was supposed to be Apple Brown Betty, but looked more like Apple Crisp (boys are funny that way). He was just so happy to be eating something that wasn’t cake on his birthday.

Especially when I pulled out the milk-free ice cream to eat it with.

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Apple Brown Betty with Oats

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 4 cups apples, washed, peeled and chopped up
• 1 1/2 cups quick oats
• 3 tbsp melted butter/margarine
• 3/4 cup water (plus extra, if needed)
• 1 tbsp lemon juice

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350*F.
2. Mix together brown sugar, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Set aside.Toss oats with melted butter/margarine.
3. Grease a 1 1/2 quart casserole dish and add alternating layers of apples, oats and sugar mixture.
4. Combine water with lemon juice and pour over the mixture.
5. Cover the dish with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and cook for another 15 minutes, or until the apples are tender and the oats are soft. (You may need to add a little more water).
6. Serve with ice cream or milk.

Recipe modified from the Apple Brown Betty recipe from Purity Cook Book

Enjoy!