Old Fashioned Apple Crisp
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This is THE
This old-fashioned crisp is full of fresh apples, cinnamon, and nutmeg. And then it’s topped with my favorite crisp topping recipe made with oatmeal, brown sugar, and butter and baked until bubbly hot. This easy apple crisp will make fall baking fun and tasty!
Ingredients for the Best Apple Crisp
This recipe has all the hallmarks of that classic crisp, and there’s nothing really surprising in this shopping list.
Apple Filling:
- Baking apples-they must be baking apples! More information on baking apples is below
- Lemon juice
- Melted butter
- all-purpose flour
- Brown sugar (Missing sugar? These alternatives do the trick)
- Ground cinnamon
- Ground nutmeg
- salt
Old Fashioned Crisp Topping:
all-purpose flour - brown sugar
- old-fashioned rolled oats
- salt
- cold butter
Can I use Apple Pie Spice Mixture in Apple Crisp?
Yes, you can! Apple Pie Spice is a premade mix of warm spices consisting of cinnamon, nutmeg, and ground all-spice. Using it in place of the cinnamon and nutmeg works perfectly in this recipe! And if that sounds good to you and you don’t have apple pie spice mix just add a pinch of allspice.
Can We talk about Baking Apples??
I can’t stress enough that the key to well-baked apple desserts is baking apples. There’s a huge difference between baking apples like Pink Lady, Honeycrisp, or Granny Smith apples and their softer counterparts. These can be sweet or tart apples that bake up nice and firm in baked goods. Soft or non-banking apples get mushy and can ruin your baked goods.
When you go to the store or orchard just ask someone in charge of fruit to point you towards the baking apples. Anyone in charge will know exactly what you’re looking for.
Soft apples make great apple sauce or apple jelly, and the two varieties of delicious apples make a good addition to the lunch box. So don’t write them off just yet! And I LOVE to add 1 sliced soft apple to my apple pies for textural variety. But that’s me! There are great things about both kinds of apples just depending on where you use them.
What makes a crisp vs a crumble?
A Crumble is a topping made with flour, sugar, butter, and maybe spices. It makes a fine
Crisps are everything from a crumble but with the addition of oatmeal! The oats get toasty and crispy and you have a crisp!
This is my tried and true recipe for crisp. It was handed down to me and tweaked ever so slightly to become my favorite crisp. The brown sugar, butter, and oats are just the perfect combination. I love it in this Blueberry Crisp and this Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp!
If you loosely break up the crisp it bakes up really fine like granola on top of the baked filling. And if you leave the crisp in bigger chunks it’s almost like an oatmeal cookie on top of the apples. I like it both ways.
Can I use a Food Processor to Make the Crisp Topping?
My favorite way to make this topping is in the food processor. It makes
Then take the blade out and gently stir in the oats with your hands pressing the topping together until the oats are incorporated. If you add the oats to the food processor and mix with the blade you’ll chop them up, and you don’t want that! You want the oatmeal to stay as whole as possible so it makes a crunchy topping.
If you don’t have a food processor you can use a pastry blender or pastry cutter to cut the butter into the dry ingredients instead of the food processor. It’s the same process just done by hand. And if you don’t have a pantry blender you can use two knives to chop the butter into the flour and sugar.
All three methods will work just use the best way that works best for you. Basically, you need to cut the butter into the flour to make coarse crumbs for the topping, however you get there, it works.
How to serve a Fruit Crisp
You can serve this apple crisp either HOT out of the oven or let it cool down a bit first and then serve it. There’s just something about warm fruit
I think the preferred way to serve this is with a big scoop of
How to Store an Apple Crisp
Let the apple crisp cool at room temperature and then store uncovered at room temperature for a day. After that cover it lightly with foil but leave so it can breathe. If you cover tightly it or put it in an airtight container it will be soggy the next day.
Our Other Favorite Apple Recipes
Best Apple Crisp
Ingredients
- 3 lb apples peeled, cored, and diced
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 3 Tablespoons melted butter
- 2 Tablespoons flour
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
Crisp Topping
- 1 ½ cup flour
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- ½ cup old-fashioned rolled oats
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 F
- lightly grease a 9-inch skillet or round baking dish
- Peel, core, and dice the apples into ½” thick pieces. As you dice them, place the chopped apples in a large bowl and toss them with the lemon juice to prevent browning
- in a medium bowl, mix together the melted butter, flour, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt until it creates a thick paste
- Transfer the sugar mixture to the bowl of apples and toss to coat
- Spoon the apple mixture into the prepared baking pan, spreading evenly
- put the flour, brown sugar, and salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a chopping blade
- cut the cold butter into the bowl as well
- place the lid on the processor and pulse to chop until it looks like coarse crumbs
- remove the blade from the processor and add the oatmeal and press together until the oatmeal is incorporated
- sprinkle the topping mix over the prepared fruit
- bake in the preheated oven 45-50 minutes or until the fruit is bubbling hot and the topping is crispy brown
- cool 10 minutes or so before serving with ice cream
- OR cool completely a store lightly covered after 24 hours
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