Some recipes are good enough to serve at the church picnic. Some recipes are fine enough to take to the family barbecue. Other recipes you know will satisfy your office coworkers. Those savages will eat just about anything.
Then there’s the recipe that you pull out of your back pocket when you’re looking for love.
This beautifully simple Apple Crisp recipe is that “get a man (or woman!) and hold on to him (or her!) recipe”. If you already have that man, consider this your “it’s time for a ring” recipe, or your “sorry I scratched the bumper of our new car” recipe, maybe even the “thanks for working so hard today honey… I made the house smell like warm apples with this apple crisp just for you” recipe. See, I’m looking out for you.
This recipe is the perfect balance of warm memories and good love. The warm apples tossed with sugar and cinnamon beautifully collide with the toasted, crunchy topping.
It’s a dream come true.
So the Bake a Warm Apple Crisp and Get a Man experiment hasn’t yet worked for me. That’s mostly because I haven’t tried it yet.
But Ann, the generous lady at Fidget who was kind enough to share this recipe with me, has had oodles of success. She wooed her husband with this very recipe and still has requests for the apple crisp from Mr. Fidget six years later. It works!
Sit and Stay Awhile Apple Crisp
recipe from Ann of Fidget
bake in an 8×8 baking dish or double the recipe and bake in a 9×13 dish
Filling:
5 to 6 medium-size apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1/4-inch slices. (About 7.5 cups) + a squeeze of half a lemon
3 tbsp granulated sugar
1.5 tsp cinnamon
Topping:
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/3 cups lightly packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon + 1 tsp sea salt
1 stick unsalted butter, well-softened
2/3 cup finely chopped pecans (optional)
1/3 cup old fashioned oats
Preheat the oven to 350. Generously grease an 8×8 baking pan with butter.
Place a layer of apple slices in the bottom of the pan and dust with sugar/cinnamon mixture and lemon juice. Continue layering apples and dusting with cinnamon/sugar until done. Toss the apple mixture until evenly coated in cinnamon sugar. The apples should be just about to the top of the pan (they will cook down).
For the topping, place the flour, brown sugar, nuts, cinnamon, salt and oats in a large bowl and stir well with a wooden spoon. Work the butter into the mixture with your fingertips until evenly distributed. Take one full handful of the topping and toss it into the sugared apple mixture. Spread the rest of the topping evenly over the apples. (I usually end up with a dough-like topping that I just lay on top of the apples).
Bake the crisp in the dish on a baking sheet on the center oven rack until the topping is crunchy and the apples are bubbling, 55-60 minutes.
Serve hot; it’s excellent with vanilla ice cream.
elizabeth
i just made this for a dinner party i threw and it was a aaaamazing. everyone thought it was delicious. the apples carmelized perfectly and the crumble topping was the perfect texture. i followed the recipe exactly and it turned out great. thanks for another winner, joy!
Rachel
I make this recipe several times a year and I’m so grateful to have it. Apple crisp is a dessert my mother made every Sunday, and this brings back her recipe as best as I can imagine. It was a hit over the Thanksgiving weekend, and for that (and you and your blog) I am thankful =)
(Also – I sub coconut oil for butter and add a pinch of sea salt to the topping and it turns out wonderfully.)
Kate S.
This looks absolutely AMAZING! I had a quick question for you – do you think this would keep if I prepped the dish and stored it in the refrigerator the night before, and baked it the following evening? I have a dinner party with some girlfriends and I would LOVE to make this, but I wouldn’t have time to prep it, cook it, and bring it over between work and the dinner. Thanks for your help!
Danielle
Ever since I made my fiancé (then boyfriend… it worked!) this crisp for the first time, he actually asks for me to make it on a daily basis. Earlier today we were talking about Thanksgiving desserts and he said, “and apple crisp?!” He thinks it’s appropriate for any holiday… thanksgiving, christmas, columbus day… ha ha. Anyway, great recipe! I’m making it tonight for our whole family.
Margaret
Hi! I really want to make this but I only have a microwave and no conventional oven. Any way I can use the microwave to bake this and still get good results?
joythebaker
Hmmmm, that’s a tough one. I’m on the opposite spectrum, I only have a conventional oven and no microwave. I wouldn’t recommend the microwave, but you may want to try a Google search to see if it’s possible.