Dorm Room Apple Cobbler

As a student living on campus, there isn't much room for creativity when it comes to cooking, unless you live in the apartment style dorms and have your own kitchen. I do not have my own kitchen, a means for getting to and from the grocery store, or even much storage room. This is fine, because I have a meal plan and can eat all the mediocre food I want with a swipe of my ID card. Unfortunately, even those of us with meal plans still occasionally have a need for cooking/baking. My need happens to come in the form of my boyfriend and his imminent birthday. How will I overcome the undesirable circumstances of dorm life in order to make him the most delicious birthday treat of his young life? By creating the recipe for Dorm Room Apple Cobbler, of course!

Note: This recipe is based off of what I personally have in my dorm room. Some of these ingredients will need to be bought if you, unlike me, do not own them already.

Dorm Room Apple Cobbler  
Equipment-

•  one deep baking dish, preferably 9 in.
•  a sharp knife 
•  one medium bowl for mixing; ask the nice people at the front desk
•  one wooden spoon, for mixing, ladling and licking when you are finished. Again, see front desk.
• measuring cups, teaspoons and tablespoons. As a college student living in a dorm, I'm sure you don't have these. Either eyeball it (let's be honest, it's cobbler. You're basically just throwing a bunch of delicious ingredients together and calling it baking) or ask the people at the front desk and pray you get lucky.
• one oven mitt or heavy towel for taking the pan out of the oven.
• friends to share the finished product with. If you don't have friends, you can substitute with the gym after you have eaten the whole cobbler by yourself.

Ingredients-    

    Apple Filling:

• about 5-7 apples, which you can steal from Suwannee/Fresh. Try to get the green ones.
• 3/4 cup sugar. If you don't have enough sugar to accommodate both the filling and the topping, try substituting with brown sugar. It pears nicely with the apples. (See what I did there?)
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• dash of nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup water (Use bottled if you can, but if you use tap, filter it first. Tallahassee water is some nasty sh*t)
• 1 tablespoon butter. Don't have room in your fridge or your wallet to buy four whole sticks of butter at Publix? Use Suwannee/Fresh for that, too.

        Topping:

• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup sugar (real sugar for this one)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder. Do NOT use baking soda. For both our sakes.
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 egg

            OR (if you don't have eggs and don't feel like buying a whole carton for one recipe)

• 1 1/2 tablespoon water
• 1 1/2 tablespoon oil
• 1 teaspoon baking powder

Apparently this mixture mimics the texture that the egg was going to give the batter. Plus, you don't have 11 unused eggs in your tiny little dorm fridge now.

Directions-

      Prep:

• Walk down to the kitchen on your floor of the dorm. If it is in use, proceed to closest floor and try to use their kitchen. If the people occupying the kitchen are using it as a study room, use the oven and counter space anyways while giving them pointed, dirty looks. 
• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. 
• While the oven is preheating, wash, peel and slice the apples. Don't worry about getting all the peel off, nobody cares about that. 
• Lightly butter your 9in. dish. If your hands are clean, which they are since you just washed those apples, your fingers will work fine for the buttering process. 
• In medium bowl, combine the thinly sliced apples, sugar, flour, cinnamon, salt, vanilla, and water in the quantities given. Put this mixture into your buttered dish.
• Dot the apples with the remaining 1 tablespoon of butter and set aside for the moment.
• Using the medium bowl once again, combine all of the ingredients for the topping and beat until smooth using that wooden spoon. 
• Drop the batter over the filling, evenly spacing it. The batter will spread as it bakes, so don't worry if it doesn't seem like there's enough. 

      Baking:

• The oven should be heated by now, so open it, making sure to blast those studiers with searingly hot air (seriously, there are plenty of study rooms that aren't kitchens, get out!), and put your little dish of appley goodness inside. 
• Bake for 30-40 minutes or until the apples are tender and the crust is golden brown. 
• Using the heavy towel or oven mitt, remove the cobbler from the oven, let cool for a moment and then serve.

Serves 6-8 (or one very lonely, hungry college student)

I have a feeling that I am going to be adapting many recipes like this for next semester. Anyways, have fun and enjoy!