Apple Brown Betty

Oh man; if you do a google you'll find that everyone and her brother has a recipe for Apple Brown Betty, and all of them are different. This was my attempt to 1) use some stale cake and 2) split the difference on a bunch of conflicting recipes.

Ingredients

Approximately 1/2 of a cinnamon sponge cake, slightly stale, cut into 1/4" cubes
1.5 tsp nutmeg
1/2 c. brown sugar
rind of 1 lemon
2.5 lbs apples (suggest Granny Smith and McIntosh)
8 T. apple juice or cider
1.25 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp allspice, salt
about 2 T. butter

Methodology

1. Preheat oven to 375*. Peel, core, and slice apples. Combine sugar and nutmeg and set aside about 2 T.

2. Mix spices and cake. Put a layer of cake at the bottom of a casserole pan, then a layer of apples, then pour about 4 T. of apple juice over. Put another layer of cake and sugar, another layer of apples, more juice. End with cake and sugar, then sprinkle the reserved 2 T of sugar on top.

3. If you are paying attention, dot the top with butter. Otherwise just put the lid on the casserole (or cover with foil) and put in the oven for about 45 minutes.

4. After 45 minutes, take lid off (dot top with butter now if you forgot earlier) and let it bake until brown, about another 15 minutes depending on how long you spend gaping at it with the oven open.

5. Serve with vanilla frozen yoghurt or whipped cream.

Notes

*Though the top layer was a bit dry, the other layers were extremely delicious. Next time I will cut some margarine in with a pastry cutter to help this problem. Perhaps even make a more apple crisp-like topping.

*About a 3 of 7 on the disaster index.

*Well received, though.