Apple Cinnamon and Cheese Biscuits

 

1 tube large Grand Flaky Biscuits
2 large apples
1 stick butter
1 cup light brown sugar (packed)
1 tsp. cinnamon
8 slices cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Use a spring pan or casserole dish large enough for 8 large Grand biscuits without them touching.  Pull the biscuits in half and place 8 half on the bottom of the baking dish.  Core, peel and cut the apples into 1/2" chunks (approx.).  Place in a pan with the butter, sugar and cinnamon.  Allow the sugar and butter to melt over med. high heat and the apples to cook until they're barely firm in the center.  Spoon 1/2 the apples over the biscuit halves.  Place a slice of cheese over each half.  Top with remaining 8 biscuit halves.  Spoon remaining apples over each half and drizzle with the liquid.  Bake 45 minutes or until biscuits are done.  Sprinkle with more cheddar cheese (optional).  

Comments:  This dish is so easy yet so tasty that even if you've never eaten cooked apples or apple pie with cheddar cheese, you can't help but love it.  This idea actually hit me in the middle of the night when I couldn't sleep.  I had made the crescent roll apples before but this one comes out more like a cinnamon roll.  Which reminds me, taste the apples when you boil them to see if you need to add more cinnamon.  I like a strong taste that soaks into the biscuits.

Apple Dumplins'

1 teaspoon cinnamon, ground 

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, ground 

1 pkg. 10 canned biscuits

4 apples, cored and cut into 1/4s

1 stick butter

1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar 

1 cup water 

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 500°F. Mix cinnamon and nutmeg in small bowl. For each dumplin place 1 biscuit between 2 pieces of parchment paper.  Using a roller or smooth, thick glass, roll out the biscuit until very thin.  Remove top piece of parchment paper.  Sprinkle with cinnamon nutmeg mixture.  Place 1 apple fourth in center of dough.  Cut off 1 tsp. of butter from stick and place in the center of the apple.  Carefully fold dough up over apple half, pinching seams together to seal. Place dumplings, seam-side down, in greased 13x9-inch baking dish.  Place into hot oven for 10 minutes or until the crust begins to brown.

While the dumplins are in the oven bring sugar, water and remaining butter to boil in small saucepan. Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla; set aside.

After the dumplins have browned, reduce oven temperature to 350°F. Pour sauce over dumplings. Bake 40 to 45 minutes longer or until apples are tender and pastry is golden brown. Serve warm with ice cream or whipped cream, if desired.

Comment:  I used a square cast iron frying pan.  With 4 apples you end up with 16 fourths so I placed one piece in the pan to use as a tester for the apples.  This allowed me to pierce it for tenderness after about 20 minutes so I wouldn't have to pierce the dumplins.  I also sliced up the remaining pieces and placed one slice between each of the dumplins so they wouldn't tough and stick together.  About half way through cooking I pulled my dish out and spooned the sauce over the tops of the dumplins, then put them back into the oven to finish cooking.

Apple Dumplins

2 Granny Smith apples 

2 cans crescent rolls

2 sticks butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoons vanilla

cinnamon

1 small can (7 1/2 oz.) coke

1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Peel and core apples. Cut apples into 8 slices each. Roll each apple slice in a crescent roll. Place in a 9 x 13 buttered pan. Melt butter, then add sugar and barely stir. Add vanilla, stir, and pour over apples. Pour coke around the edges of the pan. Sprinkle with cinnamon and walnuts.  Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Serve with ice cream, and spoon some of the sweet sauces from the pan over the top.

Comment:  While in the mountains I bought a bag of apples.  I probably should have inquired what kind of apples they were but didn't.  Turns out that they are VERY tart apples that weren't good for eating raw but only good for cooking.  I had found an Apple Dumplin recipe some time ago but just hadn't tried it yet but knew these apples would be great to use instead of the Granny Smith.  (These apples had more tartness than the Granny Smiths!).  The recipe called for 2 Granny Smith but since my apples were a little smaller I used 4 and cut them into 4 slices each.  This may have been even better since I ended up with larger pieces of apples in each dumplin.  The recipe also called for regular sugar and Mountain Dew.  I decreased the sugar to 1 cup of  UNPACKED brown sugar and a small can of coke.  I also added the walnuts.  This turned out to be an OMGoodness dish!  Easy, quick and so delicious.

Apple Cheddar Bread (1982 cookbook)

2 cups sifted self-rising flour
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup coarsely broken walnuts or pecans (I used pecans)
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 1/2 cups apples, peeled and chopped (1 large or 2 small)
1/2 cup sharp Cheddar cheese, shredded (I used 1 cup)
1/4 cup milk (I used 1/2 cup of Almond milk)
2 eggs, slightly beaten

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 9 x 5 loaf pan.  (I used non-stick spray).  In a large bowl combine flour, sugar, cinnamon and nuts.  In another bowl mix the remaining ingredients.  Stir wet mixture into flour mixture.  Batter will be lumpy (and thick).  Spoon into loaf pan and bake 60-70 minutes.  If top browns too quickly, cover it with foil the last 15 minutes.  Remove from pan immediately and cool on a wire rack.

Comments:  This is another recipe I found in one of my older cookbooks.  The apple type is your choice.  I used Gala and 1 large made 1 1/2 cups.  I believe 2 small would give you about the same but I also don't think that a little extra apple will hurt this bread.  As for the cheese - I love apple pie with melted cheese so this just didn't seem to be enough cheese for my taste so I used a full cup instead of the half.  And since the Almond milk is thicker than regular milk I increased it to 1/2.  Actually this wasn't a bad idea because I think the batter would have been a little too dry so the extra I added worked perfectly.  Now for taste.  OMGoodness!  You get a slight sweetness from the sugar, a slight tart from the apple and a touch of salt from the cheese.  This bread couldn't have been better.  This is a dish that everyone will love, even those who don't like cheese.

Apple Cinnamon Glaze Muffins (Upside Down Apple Muffins)

6 Tbsp. melted, butter
6 Tbsp. sugar
cinnamon
1 large apple peeled, diced thin


Into a 12 tin muffin pan put 1 tsp. of the melted butter.  Add 1 tsp. of sugar to each tin and sprinkle with cinnamon (to taste).  Divide the apple evenly between the tins. 


Batter:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup melted butter


Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.  To the beaten egg add milk and melted butter.  Stir liquid into dry mix.  Stir until batter is smooth.  Divide evenly between the muffin tins.  Bake 20-23 minutes.  Turn out of pan at once.  Serve warm or cold with butter.


Comments:  I found a version of this recipe in a 1950s pamphlet put out by the National Association of Margarine Manufacturers.  All of the recipes within this booklet called for margarine.  Well, in the 50s margarine was made a little differently than it is today.  Back then margarine was made from "highly refined vegetable oils and cultured pasteurized skim milk."  Most of the margarines you see on the grocery shelves are soft spreads and are made from a variety of ingredients making them not as easy to use when baking older recipes.  That is why I used butter instead of margarine.  The original recipe also called for cherries.  You would use a 1 lb. can of sweetened cherries, drained.  I decided to try this with apples and added the cinnamon.  Either way, this is another great 'oldie but goodie' recipe from the past.  It's simple and can be made with the apples, blueberries, strawberries, cherries, etc.  Think with Your Taste Buds when making this recipe.  Oh yeah!  If you have someone who likes cherries, another who likes blueberries, and yet another who likes apples, make your muffins by adding different fruits in some of the tins and other fruits in others.

Comments from Food Tester Carol:  We were rescued this week by Apple Cinnamon Glaze Muffins.  Coming home from a two-hour stretch of therapy and having no lunch, three of us arrived home to find these delightful muffins.  They were just right to bring our stamina - the chopped fruit on top, with just a hint of butter and sugar - just the way we used to experience our mom's pineapple upside down cake.  What a marvelous way to revive an old treat, present it with various fruits and a light cake muffin.  It looks more complex than it really is.  I believe Martha when she says it is simple to make, but oh so delicious.

Bavarian Apple Torte

Crust:

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. vanilla
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Cream Cheese Filling
1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Apple Topping:

4 cups sliced apples (4-6 depending upon size)
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  In a medium size bowl combine crust ingredients.  Press into the bottom and 1 - 1 1/2" up the side of a 9" springform pan.  Cream the filling ingredients together.  Pour evenly over crust.  In a large bowl toss together apples, sugar and cinnamon.  Evenly spoon over filling.  Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes.  Lower heat to 400 and continue to bake for 25 more minutes.  Cool before removing from pan.  Serves 8-10.

Comments:  I found this recipe in an old cookbook and after reading the ingredients I had to give it a try.  I made 1 change and that was to the amount of pecans.  When I chopped my pecans I found that I had about 3/4 cup instead of the 1/2 cup called for so I added them all.  This is one dish that I could eat the crust by itself.  I could eat the filling by itself.  And I could eat the topping by itself.  But when you put them all together you have one very delicious dish.  For my apples I used Gala since that is what I happened to have on hand.  They were perfect.  The pecans give the crust wonderful taste and the texture is perfect.  The filling comes out like a custard and the apple topping is perfectly sweet with just a little firmness.  Don't miss trying this recipe.

Comment from Food Tester Carol:  You may wonder how a person who was not at home for Easter dinner could possibly comment on this pie but I can tell you that the five people who were at home for Easter dinner insisted I write to tell you how marvelous it was.  They told me that the flavors all worked so well together - form ground pecans in the crust, the cream cheese filling and the apples... and not too much sugar that the flavor of the apples was masked.  My family wants me to make this pie at the next family gathering!  They all loved it.

Apple Walnut Cake

4 med. apples, peeled and sliced (or 3 large)
1 tsp. cinnamon
2 cups self rising flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2/3 cup canola oil
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Topping
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 cup chopped almonds

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Spread apples in the bottom of a 9 x 13 x 2 pan sprayed with non-stick spray.  Sprinkle with 1/2 cup walnuts and cinnamon.  In a large bowl combine flour and both sugars.  Add eggs, oil, buttermilk and water.  Mix well.  Pour over apples.  (Batter should be slightly thicker than cake mix, if not, add a little water and mix until you have a thick, pourable mix.)  Bake 35-40 minutes or until browned and toothpick in center comes out clean.  While cake is still hot, poke holes into cake using a fork.  Set aside and made topping.

Topping - In a saucepan combine sugar and sour cream.  Cook over medium heat until it starts to boil.  Immediately add baking soda and remove from heat.  Pour over hot cake allowing to seep into the cake.  Great served with ice cream while still hot!