This is exactly what happens when apples, cinnamon, and a tiny bit of intentional chaos decide to become comfort food.
It has just enough spice to make your entire kitchen smell like you’ve got your life together, and between us, you don’t even have to try!
Hack it: Use whole-grain flour to get extra fiber and a moister result.Use half olive oil, half butter for a Mediterranean version of the classic recipe.Add nuts: chopped walnuts, pecans, or almonds make wonderful additions to this recipe.Add caramel: Drizzle a little caramel syrup right before serving for an extra-special touch.
Leftovers: Gently reheat in the oven to bring the topping back to life.Save some to enjoy over yogurt for breakfast. We are not here to judge.Serve any leftovers with a huge scoop of vanilla ice cream, especially during the warmer months.
Ingredients
1/2cupbutter, softened, plus more, to taste, for greasing the pan
1cupall-purpose flour
3/4cuprolled oats
1cupbrown sugar, packed
1teaspoonground cinnamon
4cupsapples, peeled and chopped
1cupsugar
2tablespoonscornstarch
1cupwater
1teaspoonvanilla extract
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Grease a 9-inch square baking pan with the extra butter.
In a large bowl, add the flour, the oats, the brown sugar, and the cinnamon and whisk to combine.
Gradually add 1/2 cup of the butter to the flour mixture and mix, until the mixture forms a crumbly consistency.
Press 1/2 of the flour and oat crumble mixture evenly into the bottom of the prepared pan to form a crust.
Cover the crust evenly with the apples.
In a small saucepan over medium-high heat, add the sugar, the cornstarch, the water, and the vanilla and stir to combine.
Bring the sugar mixture to a boil and cook, while stirring, until thick and clear, about 2 minutes.
Pour the sugar mixture over the apples evenly.
Spread the remaining flour and oat crumble mixture evenly on top of the sugar mixture, forming the top layer.
Bake in the oven until the apples are tender, about 1 hour-1 hour 5 minutes.
Transfer the crisp from the oven and allow it to cool, about 10-15 minutes.