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An outstanding, homemade apple crisp starts with the right choice of apple.

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You need a baking apple,^[1] but within that framework, you have a lot of choices, especially in the fall, when stores are overflowing with fresh apples. It can be hard to choose, but fortunately, you don’t have to single it down to just one. You can choose a couple different varieties if you want, and develop your own signature blend. Choosing large apples will help make your prep quick and easy. Next, you’ll want to add sugar and cinnamon to the apples – how much is really a matter of taste. Finally, the streusel topping: 1-2-3-4: 1 part brown sugar + 2 parts butter + 3 parts flour + 4 parts oats. Some people like lots of topping, other prefer less.

That simple formula is the backbone of the following recipe.

Serves a definite 8 if accompanied by ice cream, 6-8 if not

Ingredients

World’s Best Apple Crisp

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375˚F. In large bowl, toss apples with lemon juice, cinnamon, and ½-cup granulated sugar. Transfer to a shallow 2-quart baking dish.^[3] Use a rubber spatula to scrape all the juices from the bowl into the dish. 2. Using the same bowl you used for the apples, mix together flour, brown sugar, salt, and remaining 2 Tbs granulated sugar. Cut butter into flour mixture until mixture is the texture of coarse meal. Add oats, and use your hands to toss and lightly squeeze mixture until large clumps form. Sprinkle topping mixture over apples. 3. Bake until the crisp is golden, and the apples are bubbling^[4] and offer almost no resistance to a fork, 55 to 65 minutes. Let cool at least 10 minutes before serving.^[5]

That’s it! Making apple crisp is that simple. The rest of the information in this post is just food for thought.

Crisp vs. Pie:

Best Apple Crisp Recipe Ever

1. Most crisps don’t incorporate a thickener into the apples. Hence, you should expect a crisp’s filling to be looser and wetter than pie filling. I vacillate on this point. I love the simplicity of a juicy filling, as well as the way it complements the dry crunch of the topping. But I also love the richness of pie filling and consider oat topping to be a refreshing alternative to pie crust. So sometimes I use a thickener and other times I don’t. When I do, it’s a Tbs of cornstarch, tossed in with the sugar and cinnamon.
2. Some crisps call for dicing the apples, while pretty much all pies call for slicing.
3. Spices run the gamut, although there is a general tendency for crisps to use a single spice (almost invariably cinnamon) rather than a blend, and less spice than a pie, putting the flavor focus on the freshness of the apple. I like to go both ways. Three-ways, sometimes: firstly, I think ¾-tsp of cinnamon is perfect. Sometimes, I’ll decrease that to ½-tsp, which results in more of a cinnamon scent than flavor. However, I’ll now and then stick with the ¾, and add ¼-tsp nutmeg and maybe a pinch of clove. The added spices push the crisp into pie territory, and, although I wouldn’t want crisp to establish settlements there, I enjoy the occasional incursion.
4. Unlike pie crust, apple crisp topping likes to be exclusively on top. But now and then, the apples are, like, “Really? We think we have a headache.” So I take about ⅓ of the topping and spank it onto the bottom of the baking dish (in which case you should butter the dish beforehand). The apple juices wind up baking into this part of the topping in a particularly delicious way.

Improv:

Apple Crisp Dessert with Oatmeal Topping

Making apple crisp from scratch is a simple, straightforward process. It’s easy to imagine it as a platform for improv, if you don’t mind leaving tradition behind. Apple gets along with nearly everything; feel free to replace a few big fistfuls of the apple with rhubarb, cranberries, blueberries, cherries, pear … any fruit that won’t disintegrate in the oven. Oatmeal is equally friendly. You could throw nearly any kind of chopped nut into it. You might even wind up going half nuts. Walnut is a common apple pairing, but consider out-of-the-ordinary options like Brazil nuts. Finally, consider experimenting with the spices.^[6] Peruse a variety of baked apple recipes for inspiration. Also consider vanilla, rum, or citrus zest.

Notes:

How Do You Make Apple Crisp?

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