Fall's Most Fabulous Dessert

Fall Apple Crisp Recipe

Featured item: OCT 8, 2007

Biting into a truly fresh apple ranks up there on the list of life's pleasures. Incredible flavor, that crisp crunch and cholesterol-lowering pectin fiber, vitamin C, potassium and antioxidant phytonutrients—all in one fall fruit.

Apples you buy in conventional supermarkets can be weeks, and in some cases up to a year old, and have traveled half the globe to reach your grocery cart. By comparison, local apples (or apples from your closest orchard or farmers' market) bought in season leaves a tiny carbon footprint. And you're usually supporting a small farmer and helping to preserve farmland.

There's nothing worse than carefully choosing an apple for its outward beauty, anticipating its deliciousness as you sink your teeth into it, only to be met with mealy mush in your mouth. It makes me so mad I could spit. And I do.

But it's a simple problem to solve if you choose to buy only in-season and from the local farmers' market. The fragrance of the farmers' stalls in the fall, with heaps of apples and pears, is near intoxicating. All the more so if they happen to have hot apple cider and donuts alongside the apples!

Apple varieties have their own unique attributes; McIntosh have a softer texture and a bright acidic flavor. They're a great eating apple when first picked and melt into a delicious apple sauce when cooked. Golden Delicious, with their crisp yellow flesh, maintain their shape when cooked and are tops for making apple pie. Cortland, a red-skinned and white-fleshed apple, is another versatile apple with juice that splashes across your cheeks as you bite into it. If you prefer your apples tart choose Granny Smith or Greening. But better yet, just ask the farmer who grew them for their picks and buy one of each for an at-home taste test. And, be sure you buy enough to make this easy apple dessert.

Fall Apple Crisp

I call this an heirloom recipe not only because it's best when using heirloom apples (or apples that aren't industrially grown) but also because it was handed down to me from my grandmother. It's the simplest way to get your apple pie fix without having to make pie pastry. Add a scoop of vanilla ice cream and you'll be in apple nirvana.

1 cup rolled oats
1/3 cup sliced almonds
1/3 cup unbleached, all-purpose flour
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
5 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
2 ½ pounds apples such as Granny Smith, Greening, or Golden Delicious, peeled, cored, and thinly sliced
¼ cup granulated sugar
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1. Preheat oven to 375º.

2. In a medium bowl, combine the oats, almonds, flour, brown sugar, and 1 teaspoon of the cinnamon. With your fingertips, blend the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture forms large clumps. Set aside.

3. In a 9- or 10-inch glass pie dish or baking dish, toss together the apples, granulated sugar, nutmeg, lemon juice, and remaining teaspoon of cinnamon. Sprinkle oat topping evenly over apples. Bake 40 to 50 minutes, or until apples are tender and the topping is golden brown.—Susie Quick