Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Apple and Pear Crisp - Apple Picking Spoils!

After spending the day at Smolak Farms picking apples, we had loads of apples to put to good use in the kitchen.  That is, of course, if I did not eat them first!  One of Nick's favorite desserts ever is Apple Crisp, so needless to say this was an easy decision.  Last year I made a Fruit Crisp using Ina Garten's Back to Basics recipe, and while it turned out well, I wanted to experiment with recipes a bit.  Since I had some pears on hand from our CSA, I decided to utilize those as well.

Apple Crisp
This time around, I turned to the Williams-Sonoma Essentials of Baking, which had a basic crisp recipe to start with.



Cookbook!
The Necessities (recipe adapted from the Essentials of Baking)
  • The Filling
    • 6 cups of chopped and (roughly peeled) apples and pears
    • 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar
    • 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
    • 1 tablespoon brown sugar
  • The Toppings
    • 1 cup flour
    • 3/4 cups of old-fashioned rolled oats
    • 1/3 cup granulated sugar
    • 1/2 cup brown sugar (packed tightly)
    • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
    • 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
    • 1/4 teaspoon salt
    • 1/2 cup melted butter
So many delicious apples
Weird Pears from our CSA
To begin, I roughly peeled and chopped up the apples and the pears - about 3 cups of each.  I tossed them in a large bowl and added the granulated sugar and cinnamon and stirred them together.  I then poured thefruit into a large flat casserole dish and sprinkled a tablespoon of brown sugar over the top (I love brown sugar!).

Apple Mixture
I set aside the apple and pear filling and combined the dry topping ingredients in a large bowl and gave it a bit of a stir before adding the melted butter.  I continued to stir it together until it reached a nice crumbly consistency.

Dry Ingredients
Topping
I spooned the topping over the fruit that I managed to flatten out a bit, being sure to cover all of the apples and pears evenly.  I always think (after the fact of course!) that I should double the topping recipe because it is my favorite part (next time!)  Once I finished topping off the filling, I placed the dish in a 350 degree oven for 40 minutes.

All Done!
The apple crisp was delicious!  The topping was sweet with just a bit of a crunch.  Definitely one of the better toppings I have made.  However, the apple and pear filling didn't have the juices I was expecting.  I did not have any lemon's on hand so I think the lack of lemon juice may have had something to do with it.  That and it did not have nearly the amount of sugar that others I have made, like the previous fruit crisp!

Apple Crisp is Served!
Apple crisp is always such a great dessert and so easy to make.  I think if I were going to make another crisp, I might use the topping as done here and take a bit more of Ina's filling recipe!  If you haven't made one yet, I think a fall crisp is in order :)

What is your favorite fall dessert?

4 comments:

  1. I love crisp, especially a sweet, crumbly topping!

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  2. I love how you added pears to this - sounds great! And I love anything pumpkin this time of year (especially my Mom's pumpkin cranberry bread).

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  3. For me, crisps are all about the topping, so this looks great to me!

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  4. This looks great even without juices. I love crisps. They're easier than pie, and I'd honestly rather eat crisp topping then pie crust.

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