Apple Crisp for Fall

So last weekend my family went apple picking.  It was 30 degrees Celcius out and not feeling crisp and fall-like but it was still super fun and we got a giant bag of apples out of it, got outside and had some fresh air and family time…

  Typical Family Portrait

Apple picking is one of my favourite fall activities and I tend to pick too many apples every time we go.  This usually means I make a ton of apple inspired recipes – this year the first of which was my Moms apple crisp.

I actually adapted a recipe found online because I couldn’t find Moms actual recipe but my sister had some and said it was just like my Moms.

A funny Apple Crisp Story

This story is one of family Legend…. I share it here because it makes me smile and think of my Mom, who was a wonderful Mom and person – you would all have loved her.

Mom loved to make Apple Crisp in the fall.  She made it for Thanksgiving every year and in giant quantities for the 23-26 family peeps who came over to our house every year for Thanksgiving.  People loved it. People looked forward to it.  It was a recipe that she could probably make from memory.

This particular time she was really just making it for my immediate family I think: my Dad, my sister and me.

Cut to the evil villain in the story:  Salt

More particularly Salt and Sugar in very similar containers…

you can see where this is going right?   The recipe calls for about 1 cup of white sugar along with cinnamon and flour to be mixed together then coat the apple slices…. this is approximately what our white sugar container looked like:

(actually it is exactly this – I can’t believe I found it on the Google!)

Guess what the salt one looked like:

you bet:

(only a bit smaller)

 

So Mom proceeded to make the whole apple crisp and guess what…. yup – salt instead of sugar and a whole batch in the garbage.

Yesterday I told my sister I was making apple crisp (but not with salt) via text and she smiled fondly, laughed and texted back that she was coming over for a taste… sometimes an annoying mistake can be remembered very fondly even 20-30 years later and is better than a perfect batch anyways.

Ingredients

ok here are the apple crisp ingredients

• 12-14 small to medium apples (I used Cortland which are good for baking)
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 tsp flour
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon (or more to taste)
• 1 cup or so of water

 

for the topping

• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1 cup dark brown sugar firmly packed
• 3/4 cup flour
• 2/3 or 1 cup melted butter
• 1/4 tsp each of baking powder and baking soda

 

Directions

Pre-heat oven to 350 F. Peel, core and slice apples and place in 9×13 glass baking dish.  In a separate bowl combine sugar, cinnamon and flour and mix well.  Pour on top of apples and mix well so apples are well coated.  flatten out apples so they are mostly even in dish then pour water over top evenly over all apples.  In yet a separate bowl mix topping ingredients well then sprinkle over all of the apples.  Bake approximately 45 minutes until bubbling and topping is golden brown.  Serve with whipped cream if desired (and who doesn’t desire whipped cream?)