Making a healthy snack horrifically unhealthy

So C randomly came home the other day w a collection of apples - not that apples are exactly rare in the fall in Canada lol but these were lovely, clearly local-ish, and not a type we generally need…. “They were given to me and I was hoping you might make pie happen”.  Given the disproportionate amount of cooking he does, I’m generally pretty open to baking requests esp when it’s not a waste of precious summer hours.

Suffice to say it doesn’t take much to twist my rubber arm.  I hate cooking but somehow love baking - probably cause the outcome usually lasts longer than it takes to make it ;).  And it’s tasty.  Almost always 😂 

Given the choice though, apple crumble is so much better than apple pie.  I’ve made it before but had a recipe I hadn’t done that I’d wanted to try for salted caramel apple crumble squares.    

So this seemed a good chance to test that out.  Also found a recipe for making said salted caramel.   So all good - walk over to the grocery store for the couple ingredients I didn’t have (looking at you heavy cream!   We’re not going to discuss the calories in this adventure).

So I made up all the parts - I was mildly concerned about how the caramel would work out but figured if it failed, we would still be left w some form of apple crumble so that’s not a bad worst case scenario.

As I was layering the crumble I wondered how structurally sound the bars would be.  Spoiler alert - they are 100% not ;).  However, I have not one, not two, but three things I will do differently next time to impact the structural soundness.

I’d never made any kind of candy before beyond melting already-made chocolate into molds (lol autocorrect is convinced I meant “moods” - and maybe I did!).  So I wasn’t convinced about the salted caramel; also, it seemed like a lot of salt.

But, one thing I do reasonably well is follow instructions.  Which is a problem if they’re not well written but this is one of my favourite recipe authors- not for the ridiculousness at the start that I’ve yet to read but cause her recipe’s generally have all the steps required and none that are not and if you do them in order, good things come out of the oven.   You’d think this was true of all but alas dear reader, it is not. 

So they were well written and as a result we had lovely looking apple crumble and lovely looking salted caramel sauce - which C bravely tasted and informed me it was excellent.  Yes - following instructions for the win.

But then….  It has to go in the fridge for 2h before you can cut them.  Boooo.   But if the caramel goes in the fridge it’ll have to be reheated for use.  It’s in a stainless steel pan.  It cannot go in the microwave, and reheating on the stove runs the risk of burning before I ever even got to try it.

So.  Solution.  Pour the caramel sauce over the squares and shove the whole thing in the fridge.  Done.

About that.  Did I mention the recipe for salted caramel was not part of the recipe for the bars?  Which means the amount was not relevant.  Which means instead of a drizzle - which prob would’ve been ideal - we had a thoroughly blanketed treat 😂 

Fast forward to today when we finally got to try it.   Lessons learned:

• the instruction to line the pan w overhanging cookie sheet was a win.  Super easy to get it out of the pan for cutting
• The now thick layer of caramel significantly impacted the structural integrity of the squares.  Lol as soon as I started to cut them, there were challenges ;)
• The paper won again since I used it to redeposit them in the pan in relatively the same condition they came out in
• My apple layer also contributed to structural unsoundness - it was way too think.  The instructions had said to squish them down; I thought I had; spoiler alert - not nearly enough.
• Also, in future I’d run the base (which was actually shortbread) up the sides for extra soundness.  At least, I will if I can’t sort the apples out.

So in the end we cut some out, heated it up, threw on some whipped cream cause we needed more calories, and gave it a go.  It is extremely the opposite of a square ;).  But it is SO tasty.  And super sweet w the extra caramel that it has installed portion control.  Although I’ll admit the salt portion of that makes it addictive and counteracts the portion control.   C also doesn’t find it as sweet as I do (normal) so maybe other people would like it more :)

Overall not quite exactly what I was trying to make but it’s so yummy I don’t actually care and I’m pretty pleased how the caramel worked out.   Next time I’d mix in a few green apples to balance it out and probably back off the caramel a bit - although not as much as you’re supposed to ;)

The final result - that's all gone now.  Yummy!