By SRUTHI NARAYANAN ’14

Staff Columnist

This week, we’re going to be delving into the sweeter side of dining hall hacks. But given the bouts of cold weather that continue to surprise us, we’ll stick with a theme of warm comfort food. Let’s hope it won’t be necessary for much longer.

One of my favorite desserts, something that I really miss at Wellesley, is warm apple pie. 

But, thankfully, I’ve stumbled on a way to almost make it right here on campus. Most of the dining halls have a wide variety of ingredients that only need a little bit of doctoring to be transformed into a piping hot dessert.

“Almost” Apple Cobbler

Ingredients:

* One fresh apple

* One teaspoon of brown sugar or one teaspoon of honey, depending on what you can find. These will be located near the coffee and tea station.

* One spoonful of granola

* Optional mix-ins, including a sprinkle of cinnamon, dried cranberries, raisins or even a little bit of butter for added richness

Instructions:

1. Using a butter knife, or a sharper knife if you can get one, carefully cut the apple into small pieces. Don’t worry if the pieces are different sizes; it doesn’t quite matter for this recipe. I can tell you that my own knife skills are nothing to brag about.

2. Put the apple pieces in a small bowl and toss with the brown sugar and/or honey until it’s evenly coated. Add the butter here if you’ve decided to use it.

3. Top with granola and any other mix-ins that you’d like to add. Heat in the microwave for approximately 45 seconds, or until the apples are as warm as you want them.

Suggestions:

If you want to take this recipe up a notch, try topping it with a scoop of ice cream for an à la mode version.

Some of the dining halls stock caramel sauce near the ice cream station. Need I say more? Try heating a little bit of caramel in a bowl before putting your apples in — it’ll make a really nice bottom layer.

This same recipe would probably also be amazing with bananas instead of apples. Try it out and let me know how it is. Enjoy!