Fall and Apple Crisp go hand in hand.

Many recipes call for way too much sugar in my opinion.  You need enough to help make your apples juicy when they cook but apples aren’t supposed to taste like sugar.

Try this recipe!  It serves 6

Preheat oven to 350 and bake it for 45 minutes or until it looks golden.  If you want it a bit more browned leave it in for another 10 minutes.

1 1/2 quart or 1.4 litre casserole dish (or similar)  You want something not too deep and not too shallow  🙂

6 large fresh Apple Season apples.  I like Cortlund

 

Zest from one lemon plus juice from half a lemon

1/2 tsp. pure vanilla

1/2 cup sugar

1 TBLSP. flour

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

peel apples roughly.  They don’t need to be perfect and a bit of skin makes it better

mix together in a bowl with other ingredients.  Fill casserole dish so that it comes up to the top.  do not flatten it.  Just mound it up, leaving room for your topping so that it doesn’t fall over the sides.

 

**Topping:

1 1/2 cups large flake rolled oats

1/2 cup small flake rolled oats  (if you prefer, you may use 1/2 cup flour)

1/4 tsp. baking soda

3/4 cup brown sugar not packed

3/4 cup soft butter

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

(if you are looking for something a little different, I sometimes add 1/2 cup chopped toasted almonds to this crumb topping. )

mix above ingredients together with your hands!!!!  until the consistency is medium crumbs.  The butter should be mixed in so there are no large pieces.

**I learned something the hard way which is how I have chosen to learn much through this life.

 

As much as we may believe that MORE is BETTER, this is not true.  We all adore the crumb mixture on the top of the apple crisp.  Of course we do.  However, if you pile and pack it too high and thick, it really does ruin the taste of the crisp.  SO, my recommendation is that you loosely pile the topping onto the apples and allow it to bake down.  Use a reasonable amount  and I will leave the definition of that up to your discretion.  If you have more than you need, put it in a container and use it next week when your family begs for another crisp and you take yourself to the orchard for a few more apples.  By the way, this topping works for any kind of a fruit crisp.