Apple Cobbler - Well done!

My apartment of six years was small. My best attempts to get my property manager to reward my loyalty by giving me a better, newer oven failed miserably. What I got instead was a slightly wider oven, with the same chipped cracked paint on it's stovetop as the prior version. The oven heated fast and burned quick. Combine that with the fact that I am not the best baker (too easily distracted) and you can rapidly have a disaster on your hands. Having the day off from work inspired me to make a two course meal - main and dessert. I must tell you that I rarely eat dessert. First, I don't like sweets much. I'm really more of a savory girl. My sweet tooth (were I to refer to it as such) draws me to foods like cinnamon raisin bread and scones, not chocolate or candy. Second, I am not certain I know anyone who eats dessert with a meal. If you like to eat, and you eat out, you rarely have enough room after a two course meal for a third course. Dessert is best saved for a separate meal, a one course experience.

Now my philosophy about baking usually focuses on ingredients. I make an amazing banana bread, but I have to be honest and admit that a hatred for any banana more than 2 days ripe is what first motivated me to open my Good Housekeeping Cookbook and try out their recipe. So I was making Apple Cobbler because I had a bunch of granny smith apples I wasn't willing to eat. I was also using a pear cobbler recipe I swiped online, and hoping the apples wouldn't mind. I was planning to take a small version to work, and since we don't do dessert, I divided the recipe into 3 small loaf pans.

Something told me that the 4oz of butter for the bottom of the pan (below the layer of batter and layer of fruit) was a little excessive. But I split it into three parts and forged ahead. When the oven started smoking approximately 30 minutes later, I knew it was the butter. It took me four open windows, a disconnected smoke alarm and 45 minutes to troubleshoot the problem. Ultimately the bottom of my oven was black and the 3 mini loafs were combined into a large loaf sans layers. The smoke cleared in time for dinner, and the picture is a plate of the final product next to a tablespoon of La Loo's Vanilla Goat's Milk Icecream. The taste? bready enough for my inner carb addict, and slightly sweet - a perfect fit for my sweet tooth!