Old-Fashioned Apple Crisp Recipe
To say I've been on a cooking rampage would be an understatement. Life on the road had me cooking in other people's kitchens and eating out a lot. So now that we're back in Nashville, I figured I would share some of the goodies I've been stirring up lately!
A couple weeks ago we were in Georgia playing a house concert, doing a radio interview, and playing at the Shady Days Festival in Gay, GA. We stayed an extra day to do the open mic at Eddie's Attic. While perusing the Attic's menu, mom spotted a delicious-sounding apple crisp and had her heart set on ordering it.
I tried to deter her, as I remembered the bag of apples in the fridge at home were close to going bad. "I can bake an apple crisp at home that will be delicious, Ma. No need to get one tonight!" It was the perfect excuse to use up the rest of the apples.
See, there is nothing worse than picking out the perfect bag of apples, taking them home, only to take that first refreshing bite—and it's mushy. Maybe mushy is an exaggeration. "Soft" might be a better description. Either way, the anticipation of that first crisp bite is completely lost, and suddenly your day goes from good to bad when you realize that you gotta eat the whole darn bag. #FirstWorldProblems
Even though Mom ordered the apple crisp (which I helped myself to a hearty half of), I still baked the dessert when we got home!
I experimented with peeling these apples a few different ways. First cutting them in fourths and then peeling them, then chopping them down to the final size before getting rid of the skin, only to realize that it's best to just peel it as a whole apple and then chop it down to size.
Other than that, the instructions are pretty straight forward, so here are some pictures to see how mine turned out!
Apple Crisp Recipe
Dry Ingredients
1 cup flour
1 cup oatmeal
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup shortening
1 tsp cinnamon
5 cups apples (peeled and sliced)
Wet Ingredients
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
2 tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp vanilla
Directions
Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. Add shortening in chunks and mix until crumbly (not smooth, crumbly!) and put half of crumb mixture in bottom of 8x8-inch greased pan.
Peel apples (with an apple peeler if you have one) and slice them into fourths. Cover the crumb mixture in the pan with these peeled apple slices.
Combine wet ingredients with wire whisk in pan over medium heat. Bring to a boil until thick and bubbly. Pour over apples. Cover with remaining crumb mixture.
Bake in oven at 350 degrees for 45 to 60 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool. Peaches or rhubarb may be substituted for apples.
Serve with a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream!
The family loved it. It was the perfect start to the fall season. I knew it was a success when we had eaten it all and then my mom goes, "I want MORE apple crisp!" with a child-like smile on her face. Mission accomplished.
This is my mom's go-to apple crisp recipe. It comes from a cookbook compiled by the Catholic church ladies in Pocahontas, IA (my dad's hometown).
So thank you to Ms. Carol Shimon (wherever you are) for the delicious dessert—and thanks to my mom for discovering it amongst the hundreds of pages!
Chloe