Caramel sauce and apples in a scrumptious baked pudding.

2 medium tart cooking apples, peeled, cored, and thinly sliced (2 cups)
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 cup raisins
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup milk
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup caramel ice cream topping
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 2-quart square baking dish; arrange apple slices in bottom of dish. Sprinkle with lemon juice, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Top evenly with raisins; set aside.  Combine flour, brown sugar, baking powder, and baking soda in a large bowl. Add milk, the 2 tablespoons melted butter, and vanilla; mix well. Spread batter evenly over apple mixture. Combine caramel topping, water, and the 1 tablespoon butter in a small saucepan; bring to boiling. Pour caramel mixture over the batter in the baking dish. Bake in the preheated oven for 35 minutes or until set in center. Spoon warm individual servings into dessert dishes, inverting each portion. Spoon caramel-apple mixture from the pan over each portion.

I felt like having apple pie one day, but I didn’t have the right ingredients, and also I’m a horrible pie-maker. Every time I try to make a pie, something goes wrong. The real kicker is that my little brother is the best pie-maker ever. He clearly inherited some pie-gene that I did not. So I flipped through my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook and found this recipe. It`s basically an apple version of the brownie pudding recipe that I like to make. I served it warm and topped with vanilla ice cream. It was so amazingly good! Everyone ate it up and wanted more. I followed the original recipe pretty closely, other than cutting down on the sugar. It was still plenty sweet so you could cut it down even more if you wanted. I also didn’t put nuts in my version, but you could certainly add them if you wanted to. It`s a nice and easy alternative to apple pie if you happen to be bad at making pies like I am. Even if you`re a great maker of pies (like my brother), you should still give this dessert a try.

Recipe adapted from Better Homes and Gardens