Honeycrisps. Jonagolds. Pink Ladies.

There were a few different kinds of apples just sitting in my refrigerator.

And with some down time and an urge for something sweet, I thought, let’s see what I can make with these.

After searching the web for about 45 minutes, looking at various recipes, I decided to wing it.  The worst that could happen is an awful tasting mess that I would unceremoniously toss. The best? Heaven with a cup of tea!

The best apple cake I ever had used applesauce, so I started there.

Applesauce, IMHO, should never be bought, only made at home. It’s so easy and you can control just how sweet it is because you can add as little or as much sugar as you wish.

As for me, I chopped up 6 of those apples into little pieces, squeezed the juice of a whole lemon over them, then added a half cup of light brown sugar, a half cup of orange juice, two teaspoons of cinnamon, a healthy pinch of salt, and grated some nutmeg over it all…

I put the pan on the stove and turned up the heat to medium, using a big wooden spoon to toss them around a bit. About 10 minutes into it, I added about 1/2 cup of water…just to keep them from getting too sticky while they continued to cook down.  10 minutes later, after mashing down the softened apples, I had a delicious homemade applesauce.

Then in a bowl I mixed together:

• 1 1/2 cup of regular all purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons of cornstarch
• 2 teaspoons of baking soda
• 1 teaspoon of kosher salt
• 2 teaspoons of cinnamon

In another bowl I added the following ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup of sour cream
• 1 beaten egg
• 1 generous tablespoon of vanilla
• 1 stick of unsalted butter, melted
• 1/2 cup of cinnamon chips

Then I simply mixed the contents of the two bowls together. With a few tosses of the spatula, it looked like oatmeal!

I then greased and floured a baking pan. Added the batter and topped it with some sliced apples. Then I thought — Juliana would kill me if I didn’t make a crumb topping! So in another bowl I tossed together

• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white granulated sugar
• 4 tablespoons (1/2 of a stick) of butter cut into small pieces

I mixed that up with my hands to form a nice crumbly topping and spread that on top of the cake mixture.

Into the oven at 350 for 40 minutes it went.

The intoxicating scent of apples and cinnamon — mmmmm….  so good!

And with a cup of tea, a slice of heaven appeared on our plates. Just like that.

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