Apple Crisp

Recently, someone told me that a great way to make your house smell delectable is to bake apples and cinnamon on low heat for an extended period of time. With those crates of beautiful, fragrant apples outside the grocery store this time of year, I couldn't resist purchasing some (overspending at the grocery store strikes again). Instead of baking apples alone, I made the first crisp of the season. The Sur La Table apple-cranberry crisp with oatmeal topping (sans cranberries). Nothing like combining apples, cinnamon and oats to form a perfect harmony. The house smells amazing. Hopefully I can lure a certain someone out of their room to come eat some. I don't know how those mini pumpkin lights haven't brought him out already.

Around The House

Rarely do I get the opportunity to whip up a recipe with all the ingredients lying around the house. I usually make one, two or three runs to the store depending on how the recipe is going. Down in Portland, I found some blueberries and nectarines lying around so I decided to make a crisp. Crisps are just the best things on earth. You can ad-lib any ingredients and they are hard to ruin.

This recipe was found somewhere online and goes like this:

Filling:
6 nectarines cut into large pieces
2 cups blueberries
1 cup sugar

Topping:
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup flour
1/2 cup oatmeal (you can never have too much)
5 tablespoons butter (room temperature)

The crisp went fast after two bottles of wine out on the deck on a warm summer night:

Crisp

I love, love, love crisps more than anything, and decided to make an apple crisp this weekend with some cherries. Crunchy apples I think are far better than other apples, so I stick to Pink Lady's or Honeycrisps. I used about 5 Pink Lady's and 12 ounces of cherries for this recipe.

For the topping:
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup oats (Thick rolled oats are best and I usually put in double than the recipe calls for)
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick cold unsalted butter, cut into one tablespoon pieces
1/2 cup walnuts or almonds - pecans are blech

For the filling:
5 crisp apples, peeled, cored and cut in 1/4 inch pieces
12 ounces cranberries, cherries, or other berries of your choice
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons lemon juice
3/4 ground cinnamon - the more cinnamon the better

This bakes at 350 degrees for 45-55 minutes. You can make more or less topping as well, depending on taste.

There will be many more crisps to come as more and more berries and seasonal fruit come in the next few months. Can't wait!