eaten: cinnamon apple chimichangas

When you come home with a peck of apples, desserts will have to be made. We picked a variety of apples; some for eating and some for baking. A pie was made, what next?

I had Steve choose between an apple crisp or these apple chimichangas for dessert on Sunday and he chose the chimichangas. Since there are only two of us (Henry was asleep when this went down), I halved the recipe and made two biggish burritos with large flour tortillas instead of the little ones they used in the recipe. They reminded me of a quick and easy fried pie.

The filling turned out delicious, gooey and sweet and with just the right glaze to apple ratio. I thought it was unnecessary to have the filling cool. That was Steve's only complaint is that he wished they had been warmer. Once you're frying the tortillas, it really goes fast and they don't stay in the pan long enough to rewarm the filling. But overall we devoured them with ice cream.

Cinnamon Apple Chimichangas

Recipe and Picture from JCocina

Ingredients

For the Apple Pie Filling

• 4 baking apples, peeled and chopped (I used a mix of granny smith and rome apples)
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 Tbs. lemon juice

For the Chimichangas

• 8-10 small tortillas
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 Tbs. cinnamon
• Oil for frying

Instructions

For the Apple Pie Filling

Combine the water, cornstarch, sugar, cinnamon, salt, and lemon juice in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Cook for approximately 3 minutes, or until the mixture becomes very thick.

Add the chopped apples and reduce to a simmer. Allow the apple mixture to simmer until the apples become just tender (approximately 10 minutes). Allow the mixture to cool.

For the Chimichangas

Mix cinnamon and sugar in a shallow bowl and set aside. Spoon apple pie filling across the bottom 1/3 of the tortilla.

Roll in both sides of the tortilla before rolling up the bottom of the tortilla over the filling, and then continue to roll the tortilla up like a burrito.

Meanwhile, heat a small skillet with 1/2 an inch of oil. Once oil is hot, fry the chimichangas on all sides until the tortilla turns golden brown. (approximately 30 seconds on each side) Remove the chimichangas to a paper towel-lined plate and allow to drain briefly. Immediately roll the warm chimichanga in the cinnamon sugar mixture to coat and serve.