Recipe for Cinnamon Apple Crepes; Apple Butter; Apple Sauce - all easy to make Gluten Free

Apples, apples everywhere.  That is the story at our house, but we do live in Washington State which grows six of every ten apples consumed in the United States. 

We have a small orchard with two new apples trees that I planted and two very old apples trees which  produced hundreds of apples this year.

In lieu of sitting on the sofa and watching the Seahawks play football (a Sunday afternoon activity that is thoroughly entertaining this year), we harvested our apples and got busy in the kitchen. 

One of the silver linings of Celiac Disease is the bond formed with My Gluten Free Teen in the kitchen. 

 

 

My Gluten Free Teen making Crepes

As she gets older, I appreciate the neutral ground that our kitchen and this time together affords us.  It is a place where we can laugh and talk, and make some yummy food.  I think it is sad that so many families in our modern day hectic society have lost this source of quality time. 

 

First we made apple sauce which is so easy to make:

Recipe for Homemade Applesauce

 

Ingredients:

•   8 apples - peeled, cored and chopped (see note below on types of apples)
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1  teaspoon ground cinnamon

NOTE on apples: Make sure you use a good cooking apple like Golden Delicious, Jonagold, Granny Smith, Fuji, Jonathan, Mcintosh, or Gravenstein.) Different types of apples will make a more bitter or a sweeter sauce.  We typically use Granny Smiths because they are hard and thus easier to peel.  But they are also more bitter and require more sugar, so adjust the sugar accordingly.

Directions:

1. In a saucepan, combine apples, water, sugar, and cinnamon. Cover, and cook over medium heat for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.  If apples are sticking to bottom of pan, add more water.   If you have a potato masher, you can use it to chop up the apples as they cook.  If not, just keep cooking them until apples are soft and mash with a fork.

 

 

Then we made Slow Cooker Apple Butter, which is even easier to make:

Recipe for Slow Cooker Apple Butter

 

Ingredients:

•   5 1/2 lbs apples, peeled and finely chopped ( I use 3-4 different types of apples)
•  4 cups sugar
•  2 -3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
•  1/4 teaspoon ground cloves 1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Place apples in crock pot.

Combine sugar, cinnamon, cloves and salt.

Pour over apples and mix well.

Cook on high for 1 hour.

Decrease heat to low; cover and cook on low for 9-11 hours or until thickened and dark brown. We cook them overnight.

Uncover and cook on low for 1 hour to thicken the apple buttre. 

Spoon into freezer containers, leaving 1/2-inch head space. Cover and freeze. Or preserve with hot water canning method.

 

Finally, after peeling all of those apples, we decided to make Cinnamon Apple Crepes for dinner: 

Recipe for Gluten Free Cinnamon Apple Crepes

 

Don't be fooled by the fancy name, crepes are actually really easy to make.

Ingredients:

• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup milk (any dairy free milk alternative will work as well)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2 T butter, melted ( use Earth Balance for dairy free)
• 3/4 cup gluten free flour
• 1 T brown sugar
• pinch of salt
• optional ingredients - 2 T of certified gluten free oats, 1 T flax seed

Directions:

In medium bowl, mix eggs, milk, vanilla and cinnamon.   In a crepe pan or a medium-sized saute pan,  melt butter and then add the melted butter to the egg mixture and whisking vigorously.  Make sure the butter is not so hot that it cooks the milk and eggs.  Add remaining dry ingredients (and the optional ingredients) to liquid mixture and whisk again.

Pour about 1/4 cup of the mixture into a crepe pan or a medium sized saute pan and swirl to coat the pan. Cook until just turning brown (about two minutes) and flip to cook the other side.  Remix with a whisk before pouring next crepe into pan.

Yields about 12 crepes.

We pulled out some of the apples in the applesauce while they were still hard enough that they looked like apple slices and filled our crepes with them.  Store bought apple sauce would work as well.  

Want to make peeling all of those apples easier?  We love our Back To Basics Apple And Potato Peeler.  Makes peeling apples a breeze!  And the kids love to help.