Crab Apple Crazy - A Crab Apple Recipe Round-Up

Happy Monday everyone!

My oh my! It's already back to school this Thursday! As always, summer flies by and if you blink  you may miss it! Although I am sad that summer 2012 is almost gone, there is something about the fall and the back to school season that I like. I have a whole pile of pumpkin recipes piling up on my Pinterest boards and a whole lot of crab apples ready to be picked off my tree (that is the ones I haven't already made into juice).

That being said, crabapples are great and all but all I really knew how to make was juice and jelly. The last few years I've left them to ripen and fall off of the tree. A HUGE waste and a HUGE mess to rake up. So this year I've wanted to find some different ways to use these apples and thought I would share what I found:

A lot of things I found start with the juice and since I have the little tiny apples I don't really want to go with any recipes that would require me to peel them anyway. I have sliced up a few to make some muffins because I didn't have any apples on hand. I made Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal Muffins (pictured below, only I didn't have whole wheat flour so I used all purpose...still tasted yummy just not quite as healthy) both yummy and healthy!

So minus the whole peeling thing, there is still a little you can do but it pretty much always starts with Crab Apple juice and I found a super easy recipe from Cooks.com. Not only is it a starting point for a lot recipes but the kids looove to drink it on it's own :)

So with the juice you can make:
Apple Pomegranate Syrup 
Apple Cider Syrup 
Apple Spice Syrup
Easy Crab Apple Cider
Spiced Apple Cider
Crab Apple Liqueur
Crab Apple Butter
And of course, we can't forget:
Crab Apple Jelly
 And the most interesting I have found was using the branches as a centerpiece
Crab Apple Centerpiece
Or this centerpiece

Crab Apple Sauce
Or how about some Spiced Crab Apples?
Or if you fancy yourself a little Crab Apple Brandy
And last but not least a little crab apple dessert Crab Apple Crumble Pie
I almost forgot to post this....and I can't believe I did but here it is...
Poison Apple Cocktail...it looks freakin' scrumptious!!!!!!

I don't know about you but I think I need another crab apple tree!

I hope you enjoy these great finds and let me know how yours turn out. Please feel free to share what you do with your crab apples!!