Sunday, May 1, 2011

French Vanilla Apple Crisp

It was a dark and storm night, only one thing could be done. Bake. Bake is the answer for many of my dilemmas. There's something about assembling ingredients, chopping, stirring and baking until golden brown and bubbly that cure a multitude of ills. You should try it.
So back to last week, when I opened my Frigidaire there were two sad apples leftover from afternoon snack. What can you do with apples with three bites missing? Make them into a crisp. These are the crisps we devoured last week, the baking and eating were mutually enjoyed.

Peel, core and chop up two or three apples. Two if they are large, three if there are bites missing out of some of your apples. Pile them into a mixing bowl and add a couple of tablespoons of sugar, a sprinkling of cinnamon, half a teaspoon of vanilla, a generous tablespoon of heavy cream and a few grains of salt. Mix it up and divide between two buttered baking dishes or one larger dish if you plan to share. As you can see I used my creme brulée pans and they were lovely. We did not share.

In the same bowl you mixed the apples in, mix 3 tablespoons of flour and 3 tablespoons of sugar with 1 1/2 tablespoons of butter until it's crumbly. Stir in 2 tablespoons each of oats and chopped walnuts. Give it a stir and pile it on top of the apples.

After it's piled sufficiently, set them in a 375˚ oven and bake for 20 to 25 minutes. They should settle some and be golden brown and bubbly.

It's a good idea to set them on a baking sheet to bake unless you like cleaning your oven. I do not like cleaning my oven as anyone who looks in my oven can attest to. Anyway, serve these up to the lucky participants, they would be really lucky if you topped it with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.
Obviously, you can make this in a larger pan and double the recipe. I didn't because I was only making them for two people instead of eight. This wouldn't last three minutes with the horde. Well, actually they didn't last much longer than that as it was. I hope you try these crisps, they were trés beaucoup!

3 comments:

Justinand said...

I. am. drooling... oh how I wish I wasn't doing Weight Watchers right now! This is my kind of dessert!

Unknown said...

Fruit crisps are so wonderful!! I love that you can make them so quickly and out of so many kinds of fruit. When I'm cooking for a crowd and don't have a lot of time, I get a couple of bags of frozen fruit, and if there are people who can't eat gluten around, then I substitute all of the flour for oats. It still tastes amazing and since it is a crumble, it is okay that it doesn't stick together after being baked.

Susan Lindquist said...

Okay ... I'm intrigued. Was this a late night 'after the kids are in bed' midnight snack? If so ... how DID you keep that sweet baking smell from waking those little guys!?

As for crisps, I'm with Ruffio... they can be made at the drop of a hat. The only other dessert that I think is just as easy is bread pudding.

Your crisp looks wonderful, Audra!