Mom's Apple Crisp

Nothing says fall is here like apples! This is the first of the "Apple Series" here on the Honest Chef. Today we will be discussing apple crisp.

I love apple crisp because it reminds me of home. During the fall and winter, my mom always made apple crisp for dessert. She says she always makes it because it is easy. And this time, she was actually right (more often than not her "easy" recipes take me three hours during which I curse a lot). And let me tell you, her apple crisp is so delicious. I have had other "crisps" and "crumbles" but what makes my Mom's recipe awesome is not only that it is super easy, but that it is very sweet. In fact, I think that I inherited my sweet tooth from my mom. For example, this weekend when I was home, she was scooping spoonfuls of sugar onto her Life Cereal! Life Cereal is not cornflakes, I mean, you can see the sugar crystals on the pieces! But she likes her sugar. So do I.

The other thing I like about this crisp is that the apples really meld together and become nice and soft. The top gets really crispy and then the contrast is just awesome.

So here's the recipe. You will be super amazed at how easy and how awesome this is.

Mom's Apple Crisp

7 apples (a variety; and mom says don't use McIntosh)
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup flour
1 stick butter (softened JUST A LITTLE BIT, so it's easier to crumble)

Preheat your oven to 375. Your first step is to core, peel, and slice the apples. I have a handy gadget for this, but you can do this by hand. I like to slice my apples pretty thin, so that each slice is about 1/4 inch thick and 1 inch long. I think this really lends the apples to becoming uniformly soft underneath the crust.

The second step is to put all of these into a 9x13 glass baking dish. You will see that the apples fill it up. This is good. When you're done, they will be shrunken to about half that size.

The third step is to get a big bowl, add your brown sugar, flour and stick of butter, and mix it all up until the butter is incorporated throughout (there should be small chunks of butter through the whole thing).

Pile this mixture on top of the apples, and put in oven for about 45 minutes. The crisp should be uniformly brown on the top (see below). You should also notice that the thickness of the crisp has shrunk to half its previous size.

And you're done! See, wasn't that simple? Four ingredients and three steps. Mom was not joking when she said it was easy. And I am not joking when I say it is the best apple crisp ever.

The tricks to remember are to make sure the butter is incorporated throughout the sugar and flour mixture, and to cut your apples thin. That's it! Enjoy.