buttery apple pandowdy

Or apple crunch cake. Fantastic and totally for fall.

The pandowdy is a layer of apple pie filling topped with a buttery, sugar-crisp cake layer dotted with toasted nuts.

It's based on my mom's old pandowdy recipe -- the kind that takes pie filling, a boxed cake mix and butter.I don't go for boxed cake mixes, so I found a recipe at the Chickens in the Road blog to make my own mix from scratch.

I haven't tried the mix in all-out cake form, but it worked beautifully in this recipe.

The pandowdy comes together fast, warms up the house with that awesome apple-cinnamon smell and tastes fab.

It's hard not to take a forkful (or two or three) every time I pass through the kitchen.

.Buttery Apple Pandowdy

adapted from my mom's pandowdy recipe

• 1 20 oz. can apple pie filling

• 1/2 homemade yellow cake mix, see recipe here (or 1/2 store-bought 18.25 oz mix)

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

• 1/2 cup pecans or walnuts, well chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8x8 pan.

Pour apple pie filling over bottom of pan and spread evenly across the bottom.

In small bowl, whisk together cake mix, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Sprinkle yellow cake mix evenly over pie filling.

In large pan, melt butter. Add nuts to melted butter and lightly brown butter until fragrant.

Spoon nuts evenly over cake mix.

Pour butter evenly over cake mix, using a spatula to spread butter until most of the mix is covered.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.

Allow to cool on rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Note: You can easily double the recipe for a 9x13 pan.