Apple Crisp

"If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas."   ~George Bernard Shaw

I'm a huge fan of any kind of crisp or anything with a crumb or streusel topping.  Since I'm also a big fan of desserts that I can make from items I have on hand all the time, I end up making Apple Crisp a lot.  Here is the recipe I use.  It's an adaption of several I found online but with enough changes that I'm comfortable calling it "mine" now.


Apple Crisp

Apple Mixture

6 McIntosh or Fuji apples, peeled, cored and thickly sliced (approx 1/2")
Juice from 1/2 lemon - approx 1 1/2 Tablespoons of the kind that comes in a bottle
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 T sugar

Topping

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup oatmeal
1/2 pound (1 cup) cold butter, diced

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Combine apples, lemon juice, cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar.  Pour apple mixture into a greased 9x12 baking dish.

To make the topping, combine the flour, sugars, oatmeal and cold butter in a bowl using the tines of a fork and/or your fingers, working until even, small crumbles form and butter is the size of peas.  Scatter evenly over the apples.

Bake 40 minutes until apples are just tender and topping is golden brown.


And for you visual learners (this is my 1st attempt at food photography - I'll get better):

Here is the apple mixture in the pan.  I took this picture for those of you who, like me, wonder if you're cutting the apples to an okay size:

Here's a picture of the topping mixture.  You can see that I use a very loose interpretation of "butter the size of peas":

Here's a picture of the topping sprinkled over the apple mixture with a cute kid in the background:

Here's another picture of that cute kid, entertaining his brother while Mommy cooks:

And here's a picture of the bowl you fix yourself as a reward when both kids go down for their naps.  Ice cream or whipped cream would have been a nice addition but I didn't have any:

Let me know if you have any questions.  Enjoy!