Cinnamon is our ingredient of the season. You can see our full archive of cinnamon recipes here and some more apple recipes here. This year we’ve been running a Waste Less Wednesday highlight. This week I’m here to remind you to not waste a good (or bad!) apple when you find one. The apples used for this crisp were buggy, but the bug-free bits were so amazingly delicious. It was definitely worth the time to trip them up and turn them into a delicious dessert.

Forget pumpkin spice season, in our house fall is apple crisp season!

We had such an amazing year for apples in the Boulder area. I’ve seen a number of social media posts offering baskets of backyard apples for free. The organizations that pick unwanted fruit are overwhelmed, people are sharing ladders and fruit pickers to do the work, and it’s just generally so heartwarming to see.

We’re one of the lucky ones with easy access to a delicious apple tree that was laden with fruit. Granted, these are apples from an unmaintained tree, it’s very organic with a bit of extra protein. The boys and I picked a few pounds worth. Much of that was pressed for apple juice, but some were saved for a crisp. But as you can see from the photos below, even when picking wild apples with worms, it is so easy to find enough good bits for quality baking.

Apple Crisp

This recipe comes from the King Arthur Baker’s Companion. Admittedly, I rarely turn to any other section in the book except for the crisps, crumbles, buckles, and cobblers, but what a doozy of a section that is! As usual, I’ve reduced the sugar from the original amounts (originally 3/4 cup in filling and 1/2 cup in the topping).

Filling Ingredients

• 5-6 apples, or enough to fill a pie dish, peeled and sliced
• 2 TBS melted butter
• 3 TBS whiskey (or rum!) + 1 TBS water
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, separated
• 1 tsp cinnamon, separated
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ginger
• 3 Tbsp flour
• 1/4 tsp salt

Crumble Ingredients

• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup old fashioned oats
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup brown sugar (or 1/2 cup not packed down)
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 8 Tbsp butter

How-to

• Preheat the oven to 350F and heavily butter your pie dish (I will use about 2 Tbsp of butter and leave any excess within the pan).
• Place all filling ingredients in a bowl and mix vigorously then transfer to the buttered pie dish.
• Place all topping ingredients in a food processor and mix until crumbly. If you don’t have a processor, you can mix everything except the butter and walnuts, then cut in the butter and once crumbly lightly mix in the walnut pieces.
• Sprinkle the topping over the apple mixture. Bake for about 1 to 1.5 hours, or until it’s bubbly and a nice golden brown color.

Of course this crisp is delicious served straight from the oven with a bit of vanilla ice cream. But after that first evening, my favorite way to finish the crisp is with greek yogurt for breakfast (that and a solid dose of just hoping that everyone else in the house forgets about it for the rest of the week!).