Crisp and Delicious

Apple crisp tastes like fall. The brisk, fresh crunch of the apple paired with the sweet, crunchy topping heralds the beginning of the season for me. On a quick trip up to Thurmont, MD for apples straight from the orchard I grabbed a peck of staymen apples.

Sidenote: When do you actually get to use "peck" as a means of measurement? Never, that's when.

I settled on this new unknown variety of apple by finding the eldest member of the family that owned the orchard and asked what she would use. It was described as tart, but firm making it a strong candidate for baking.

Rather than falling back on the very butter heavy crumble topping of childhood, I explored new recipes to come up with just the right option. My new love of Cook's Illustrated led me online to see what they were proposing. Even though I subscribe to the hard copy, I couldn't figure out how to get online access. But luckily, they offer a one-day pass for free and I dove into their various options (the 14 day will come up, try to close the window and a free one-day pass will pop up).

Merging two possible recipes I made a test batch in a 8 x8 pan.



Here's my slightly tweaked version of what they called their "master crumble" topping (which they did recommend making in volume, freezing and breaking it out as needed).

Topping Mixture

2/3 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup oats

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon table salt
4 tablespoons butter (chilled) chopped into small pieces
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening chopped into small pieces


In a bowl mix together all dry ingredients, then add butter and shortening and mix together into a crumble consistency until you can't see any bits of butter/shortening. Set into the fridge to chill for at least 15 minutes. While chilling, prep the fruit as outlined below, tossing into a large bowl with all of the ingredients.

Fruit
2-2.5 lb. apples (go tart, really) peeled, cored, sliced thinly or cubed 1/4 inch or so
1/4 c granulated sugar
1/5  tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon fresh lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated ginger (heavy handed)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In an 8x8 container layer in all of the apples. It will seem like a huge amount. It will all fit and will cook down a bit. Pull the crumble out of the fridge and sprinkle on top. This will cover, but not drown the apples. If you want to drown the fruit in crumble, considering doubling the above topping and using a slightly larger dish so it won't bake over the edge of the pan.

Cook for 15 minutes at 425, lower oven temp to 350 degrees and cook for another 30-40 minutes until apples are fork tender and crumble is golden brown. Serve with ice cream or milk. Yum.

Cook's Illustrated proposes if you double the fruit and topping into a 9 x 13 pan, cook it 30-40 minutes at 375 degrees. After the test batch, I made two 9 x13 pans for an event and they were delicious.



Before Baking.





After baking 40 minutes.