My consolation for summer ending is the arrival of Fall, the magical transition that eases us into the coming colder months. The air is crisp and cool without the icy sting of winter. I love how the trees drop their leaves, creating a carpet of orange and yellow hues. Yes, I will miss summer’s yummy bounty, but the fall season has its rewards. From our weekly trek to the farmer’s market, we will bring home a variety of beautiful apples and pears instead of peaches and plums. Not a bad trade-off.
Too lazy to make a pie, I mulled over what to do with the apples. My aha moment came quickly, APPLE CRISP.
Let me get straight to the point.
There is never enough oatmeal, sugar, and buttery goodness blanketing the apples. Are you with me? Oh yeah, you are. More buttery, crunchy, sweet topping, please. Don’t get me wrong, I love the apple filling-warm, slightly sweet, and spiced with cinnamon and mace. But I freely admit to being a topping junkie. My go-to recipe is an adaptation of one I found in The Family Baker by Susan Purdy, and yes, she, too, thinks you can never have enough of the crumble topping. Feel free to tweak this recipe to your liking. When my kids were little, they liked all things sweet. This meant I used only Golden Delicious apples (sometimes I snuck in a Fuji).
Nowadays, I use a mix similar to my apple pie, such as Pippins, Jonagolds, Mutsus, and Fujis in a 1:1 ratio. Explore your farmer’s market; there are so many great apples to try. Ask your friendly apple purveyor which ones hold up well when baked and which ones breakdown. I also add pecans to my crisp; I’m sure walnuts or almonds would work well too. The original recipe calls for nutmeg; I like to use mace.
But, whatever you do…
Don’t forget a scoop or two or three of vanilla ice cream. That makes it even better!
How Do You Like Them Apples (Apple Crisp)
Ingredients
Filling:
- 5-6 apples peeled, cored and sliced (~6 cups of apples) any combination of apples. For a more tart filling use Pippins or Granny Smiths. For a sweeter filling use a combination of Fuji's, Golden Delicious and Pippins (approximately 2 of each)
- 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 t grated nutmeg or mace
- juice of 1/2 lemon
- dash of salt
Topping (yum)
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 3/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1 stick of unsalted butter softened
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup old fashioned oatmeal not instant or quick cook
- 1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Butter a 9 inch deep dish casserole or gratin dish.
Crumble Topping
- Mix granulated sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon and flour in a small bowl. Cube butter. Using a pastry blender cut butter into the sugar and flour until it resembles coarse crumbs or tiny pebbles. You can also use your fingertips and pinch & smoosh the butter.
- Add oatmeal and pecans, if using, into the mixture. Stir to blend.
Apple Mixture
- Combine sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and lemon juice with apples.
- Pour apple mixture into dish. Top with crumble mixture.
- Bake for approximately 40-50 minutes until topping is browned and apples are soft when pierced with a knife.
- Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or custard sauce.