It just occurred to me today that I rarely make desserts for myself. I bake for many reasons: customers at Linda, friends & family, research, or just out of curiosity of a recipe that stirs my interest. For these kinds of purposes, my desserts are typically complex. However, what I really like to eat and what I want to bake for myself is usually very simple and rustic. I love apple pies but when I don't want to wait overnight for the pie dough to relax, I would satisfy my craving with apple crisp instead. Apple crisp is one of the few things that are so simple to make that I can even make it on ski trips with poorly equiped kitchens. One added bonus...the house always smells delicious when there's an apple crisp baking in the oven!
Ingredients
- 6 medium-size tart baking apples (I used half Granny Smith and half Fuji)
- 1 lemon
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tbsp corn starch
- 1 to 2 tbsp cinnamon, depending on how much you like cinnamon
- 3/4 cup rolled oats
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter, cold and cut into small pieces
- 1/2 cup pecans
Method
- Preheat oven to 375F. Butter a 2 1/2 quart deep baking dish.
- Peel and core the apples and chop into medium pieces. Toss with lemon zest, lemon juice, granulated sugar, corn starch, and cinnamon. Leave at room temperature for about 10 minutes so that the sugar draws out the juice from the apples.
- Using a food processor, pulse the remaining ingredients until they look like coarse crumb.
- Pack the apples and all the juice into the baking dish. Top with crumb topping. Bake for 60-75 minutes until the apple crisp is golden brown and you can see some of the juice bubbling.
- I like to enjoy the apple crisp right out of the oven with a generous topping of cinnamon creme anglaise. It tastes equally great at room temperature the next day.
Technorati: dessert, apple crisp, ski trip menu
