Merica! - Apple Toffee Crumble

Because of the events of this past holiday season, it has taken me a while fall back in love with apples. I usually love the season of honey-crisp and toffee dip but this has not been my season. I have been known to make a caramel apple a time or two. They are usually surrounded in a thick layer of homemade caramel that I stir for hours (really, 25 minutes) then I dunk them in an ocean of white chocolate and roll them in giant sugar crystals. This all sounds so glorious and it typically is, but after dunking an order for 400 of these babies three times and them still not setting right I sort of had a falling out with apples. There is so much more to the story but I have to stop there since I can tell my body is about to break out in hives at the thought of "caramel apple weekend". 

Last night we had a hankering for something sweet. I am menu planning for a large thank you dinner for all of the friends who helped with the lovely caramel apple weekend and after looking at recipe after recipe of chocolates and cookies and cakes I finally shut the books and opened the fridge. When what do my wondering eyes appear but a beautiful apple with butter quite near! I did a bit of scrounging around and put together a super simple apple toffee crumble. I LOVE crumbles with their oatyish (like that?) texture but the Salesman is not about oats under any circumstance. I decided to do a spin on my dump cake since I had everything on hand and it turned out to be a cross between a caramel apple pie/crumble/dump. It was delish and so simple. I think this has helped me fall back in love with apples just a wee bit. Maybe. Possibly. We shall see. 

Apple Toffee Crumble - Serves 4-5

Oh and sorry for the picture! I haven't found the perfect way to take a good photo of a runny bowl of butter love yet. 

5- peeled and thinly sliced apples (I used Fuji)

1/4 c. brown sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Juice of one orange

1/3 C. Heath Toffee Bits (just the toffee, NOT the bits covered in chocolate)

1 c. dry butter or yellow cake mix

3 Tbsp cold butter

Combine the first five ingredients and pour into a greased baking dish. Sprinkle the toffee bits in and around the apple sliced then cover with the dry cake mix. I like to pat the mix down a bit on the apples so that it will help too much from oozing over the sides. Ain't nobody got time for oven cleaning! Finally, thinly slice the butter and using your fingers break it into pieces and lay on top of the cake mix. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes until golden brown. The only addition that needs to be made is a big scoop of Blue Bell vanilla ice cream. Amen. 

Enjoy Ya'll!