Hi friends!  Fun day over here.  Casey is working from home and Cullen is in a great mood – a win, win!  In addition to enjoying life with a newborn, we’ve been working hard on some new Recipage features and functions, and now we’re asking for a little feedback.  If you’re interested, head over to our Recipage survey (open through Monday) and be entered to win an iPad2 just for taking it!  (Casey says I’m not allowed to win – bummer.)

I’ve got a great recipe to share with you today, courtesy of a blogger who’s food and photography both consistently make me drool.  Cassie is hilarious, talented, and a joy to read.  She’s even a Recipage user – what’s not to like?  :)

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Hi Daily Garnish readers! I’m Cassie, and I write a lot about food and a little about fitness on my piece of the internet—Back to Her Roots. I was ecstatic when Emily asked me to pop over here and share a recipe with you while she is out with the little one.

I know it can sometimes be a little startling to see another blogger posin’ on your favorite blog, but I promise not to be too obnoxious (which I may or may not be at times).

To help convince you of my worthiness, I’ve come with a peace offering—dessert.

Not just any dessert. Salted Caramel Apple Crisp.

At some point in the recent past, I really jumped on the concept of salting sweet foods. For years, I put the recommended ¼ teaspoon of salt Betty Crocker told me to put in my cookies, but up until recently, I never really understood the full power of the sweet and salty combo. And then I made salted chocolate mousse and my tastebuds were rocked like the Casbah. So I’ve been saltin’ all kinds of stuff. This nice fall dessert is just the most recent in a long line of salty and sweet experiments.

I want to talk a little bit about the caramel sauce that I slathered on top of this baby. It is a vegan sauce (I recently took a quick dip in the vegan and gluten-free pools, more on that on my blog), but tastes so incredibly decadent that you could serve it to the biggest butter fan around and they’d still kiss your feet. Honestly, the amounts down below in the recipe make about twice as much as you actually need for the crisp, but it is so freakin’ good that you’ll want the stuff around. Try it on top of yogurt, on ice cream or just by the spoonful. Heck, even if you totally avoid this crisp recipe, make the caramel sauce. I beg of you!

Alright, enough of this dilly-dallyin’ around, let’s make some apple crisp!

Salted Caramel Apple Crisp

Serves 6-8

Print this recipe

This recipe is vegan and gluten-free, but can very easily be adapted to be full o’ gluten and omnivore-tastic. Just swap out the vegan margarine for good ole butter and the chickpea flour for your favorite whole wheat or white flour.

Ingredients:

For the caramel sauce:

• 3/4 cup apple juice
• 2 tablespoons arrowroot powder or cornstarch
• 1/2 cup vegan margarine (like Earth Balance)
• 1/2 cup sucanat
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

For the filling:

• 2 pounds tart apples (like Granny Smith), peeled, cored and chopped into chunks (about 4 large apples)
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon arrowroot powder or cornstarch
• 3 tablespoons apple juice
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
• 2 tablespoons chickpea flour

For the topping:

• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup chickpea flour
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/3 cup vegan margarine (like Earth Balance)
• Coarse salt for sprinkling

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375°.

2. For the caramel sauce: in a small bowl, whisk together the apple juice and arrowroot powder until arrowroot is dissolved. Set aside.

3. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine apple juice/arrowroot mixture with all other caramel sauce ingredients. Bring to a boil and let boil for about one minute, or until sauce is thick and frothy. Remove from heat and set aside.

4. For the filling: toss apples in lemon juice until well coated.

5. In a small bowl, whisk together the apple juice, maple syrup and arrowroot powder until arrowroot is dissolved.

6. Pour apple juice mixture over apples and toss until well coated. Add remaining filling ingredients and toss until apples are coated. Pour into a greased baking dish. Set aside.

7. For the topping: combine oats, flour, sugar and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Cut in the margarine using a pastry blender or two forks until everything is well combined.

8. Sprinkle topping evenly over apples. Drizzle caramel sauce liberally over the apples and topping. Finish off the crisp by giving it a light sprinkling of coarse salt.

9. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the topping is brown and crisp and the apples are soft and tender.

10. Serve warm with a nice big scoop of vanilla ice cream topped with a smidge more caramel sauce.

Gosh, that was a long recipe. I promise it is worth the end results, but I won’t be offended if you just take the caramel sauce and run.

Thanks for having me, Emily and Daily Garnish readers! If I didn’t totally scare you off, feel free to join me for my twice-daily antics over at  BTHR. I don’t bite. Unless you happen to be a wheel of cheese.

PS – Don’t forget to check out the survey!