Back home, September and October mean apple-picking season. My family would drive down to the valley on the weekend and go apple-picking at one of the many u-picks in the Annapolis Valley. It was always one of my favourite day-trips - driving through the beautiful towns, seeing the leaves turning colours, getting to climb the ladder to reach the apples, picking out pumpkins, posing with the hay bales. Inevitably, you would leave with a borderline impossible amount of apples for one family to consume. Queue the apple crisps and homemade apple sauce. Apple crisp is one of my favourite desserts because of these memories. It’s a perfect bowl of cosy, and paired with vanilla ice-cream has the incredible hot/cold combo of a great dessert.
This is my grandmother’s recipe, which you can use as a base and riff with what is in season in your region. Variations include adding raisins, blueberries or rhubarb. Another swap is ground nutmeg or cardamom instead of cinnamon.
Nanny's Apple Crisp
Ingredients
6-8 medium apples
⅓ cup brown sugar
1 tbsp flour
1 tbsp lemon juice
½ tsp ground cinnamon
Pinch of salt
Topping:
½ cup flour
½ cup brown sugar
1 cup of rolled oats
½ tsp ground cinnamon
⅓ cup salted butter (or if you use unsalted, add ½ tsp kosher salt) - cold, cut into 1 cm squares
Method:
Preheat oven to 350F / 175C.
Combine the apples, brown sugar, flour, lemon juice, cinnamon, and salt, and pour the mixture into an 8x8-inch baking pan.
In a medium bowl, mix the topping ingredients (flour, brown sugar, rolled oats, and cinnamon). Then, using your (clean!) hands, mix in the butter by pressing the pieces into the flour mixture between your fingers. There should not be any visible butter pieces, but instead a cumbly texture that holds together when pressed.
Crumble the topping over the apples.
Bake uncovered for 30-40 mins, until the apples are bubbling and the crisp topping is deeply browned.