The Best Apple Crisp

Desert or Dessert? 

I've said it before, and I'll say it again--Grandma loved apple dishes. She wasn't, however, very creative with their titles. Take this one, for instance. Apple  Desert. Although I'm sure Grandma meant to write 'Apple Dessert,' the current title evokes images of something dry and tasteless. It also made me wonder what kind of apple dessert we were talking about. A pudding? A pie? A crisp? A crumble?  Whatever it was, the name would have to change.  

How to make Apple Dessert

I had a suspicion this dish would be most like a crisp. Since my husband's favorite dessert is apple crisp, I've made many versions in my life, trying to find the perfect one for him, and most of them contained oats, as this recipe did. I eventually landed on a crisp my husband liked best, so I couldn't help comparing this recipe to that one as I went along. It turned out to be different in many ways. 

The first way was this: the recipe said to peel the apples and cut them into eighths. I used Granny Smith apples because their tartness contrasts well with the sweetness of the topping, but wow, those were some hefty hunks of apple for a crisp, much thicker than the thin slices I usually take. 

I like a soft apple in my crisp rather than one that's, well, crispy, so I would have been concerned about these meaty slices if it hadn't been for the next step in the recipe. Unlike my usual, where the crisp is placed in the oven with the apples still raw, this one said to cook them first. I placed the chunks in a saucepan along with water, sugar, and cinnamon, and brought them to a simmer. I set the timer for ten minutes, as instructed,  

While the apples cooked, I set to work on the topping. Here, too, were differences from my usual recipe, which calls for cutting butter into the dry ingredients. This recipe said to cream together the shortening and the brown sugar. I'd learned from this recipe that shortening does not taste good in a crumb topping, so I replaced it with butter.   

I then added flour, oats, salt, and baking powder to the creamed mixture and beat the mixture together.  

Most of these ingredients were the same as the topping for my usual crisp, but my usual doesn't contain a leavening agent, like this one did. I wondered what the baking powder would do for the finished crisp. Would the topping be softer and more cake-like? That I didn't know, but I did know that beating the topping instead of cutting it together made it moister than the one I usually make.  

Once the apples finished cooking, it was time to bring the dessert together. I poured the apples into a 9-inch round baking dish, but I was sure a square would have worked just as well.  

And then, I didn't know if I should remove the liquid puddling up around the apples. I was afraid it would make the topping soggy, but the recipe didn't say anything about straining it out. I went ahead and crumbled the topping over the cooked apples and their liquid.  

The dish went into a 350-degree oven and came out looking like this, all bubbly and golden brown. It smelled wonderful. It also didn't look as dry and tasteless as a desert, so that was a good sign. 

The Verdict

We let it cool for about thirty minutes before we scooped out portions and dolloped them with a vanilla version of Grandma's Homemade Ice Cream. 

You almost can't go wrong with anything topped with Grandma's ice cream, but this crisp held its own in a big way. My fears about the topping being too soft or too soggy were unfounded. In fact, it was perfect, not hard, not cakey, and not as chewy as oaty things tend to be. The baking powder did a spectacular job of lightening it up and turning it ultra-crispy. 

As for them apples, they were extremely soft, almost like applesauce. I liked them that way, but I know some people might prefer more of a bite to their apples. The solution would be to pre-cook them for a shorter amount of time. 

This is hard to believe, but after years of searching for the ultimate apple crisp recipe, I think I found it. Hence, the new name for this recipe is The Best Apple Crisp. Try it and let me know if you think so too.