Naturally, I used the Internet for the entirety of my research, rather than consulting with family members. The majority of the recipes that I found seemed nearly identical: toss some sliced apples in cinnamon and/or sugar, top with struessel, and bake for 45 minutes at 350-400F. It seemed simple enough.
My struessel was comprised of a cup of flour, 1/4 cup white sugar, 1/4 cup light brown sugar, 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg and a pinch of salt. Oh, and butter. Six tablespoons of cold, cubed butter, to be exact. If I had a stand mixer, I would have used the paddle attachment to mix it all together so that there were still chunks of butter amidst a bowl of a not-very-mixed looking mixture. If you get to the stage where it looks like wet sand, then you've gone to far. Since I don't have a stand mixer, I had to cut in the cold butter by hand.
I peeled and sliced seven large apples, and tossed them in 1/2 cup light brown sugar and 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon. I sprayed a 9x13 Pyrex baking pan, poured in my apples, sprinkled with all of that streussel and tossed it in a 350F oven for 45 minutes. That's it! So simple.
Infortunately, simplicity is not always the right answer. This was not my mom's apple crisp. Don't get me wrong, it was good and all. But I remember more of a pie-like texture, something where there was a thick gooeyness coating the apples, which had softened in the oven, but hadn't gone mushy. I also remember the topping being, well, crispy. The topping was... well, not quite crispy. Good, but not crispy. Rather than an appley gooey coating, there was a pool of what I imagine is sugary liquid apple goodness that just wouldn't scoop with the rest of the crisp.
Oh, it was good. Even the landlord agreed. But it wasn't quite what I wanted. Fortunately, there are apples aplenty still on the tree. I will investigate further as soon as I can.
When I make apple pie, in addition to tossing the apples in the brown sugar and cinnamon, I also add a bit of flour or corn starch. I'm sure tapioca starch would work well, too. Otherwise, I always get a puddle of sugary apple juice that doesn't scoop out with the rest of the pie.
ReplyDeleteI actually had a really great recipe for apple crisp too. If only you'd asked. That'll teach you.
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ReplyDeletehttp://yeagleyspawn.blogspot.com/
This is my fav. recipe. Found it on the bag of Quaker Oatmeal.
ReplyDelete4 Cups cooking apples peeled and sliced
1 1/2 tbsp. brown sugar
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1/4 cup water
1 Cup Quaker Oates (I use the small quick oats, but the recipe says you can use any kind)
1/3 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp. salt (I only use 1/4 tsp.)
1/3 cup butter melted
Place apples in a greased shallow 9" square baking dish. Sprinkle with lemon juice, 1 1/2 tbsp. brown sugar, and water.
Combine remaining dry ingred. in a separate bowl; add melted buter mixing until crumbly. Sprinkle crumb mixture on top of the apples.
Bake at 375F for 30 min. or until the apples are tender.
Makes 8 servings.
Serve hot with ice cream. I love it! Let me know what you think!
Hey, I don't have anything useful to say, but just wanted to tell you I thought the blogs were hysterical!! Keep on wearing the funny pants, and good luck with your cooking, hon :)
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