By Brayden is sixty-nine weeks old. Hadley is two weeks. Aunt Linda is full-time at Harper’s. The apartment has been quieter this week without the regular Tuesday-or-Thursday Aunt-Linda visits that had been our pattern through 2022. The shift is the small one I had agreed to in November and the shift is what we are now living.
The caramel apple crisp is a winter-in-January take on a fall classic — sliced Granny Smith apples tossed with brown sugar, cinnamon, lemon juice, and a small amount of cornstarch for thickening, poured into a buttered casserole dish, topped with a salted-caramel sauce, finished with an oat-and-brown-sugar streusel topping, baked at three-fifty for forty-five minutes until the apples are tender and the topping is golden.
The technique question on a crisp is the apple-to-streusel ratio and the moisture management. The apples release a lot of moisture during the bake. The cornstarch in the apple-mixture sets the moisture into a thick syrup. The streusel-topping needs to be the right thickness to catch the moisture without becoming soggy.
Sunday I made it. Dustin had two servings with vanilla ice cream. Brayden had a small portion of plain apple (no caramel, no streusel). The leftover crisp covered Tuesday dessert.
Mama and Cody have continued to run the small Sapulpa-cafe at its small steady-state pace. The breakfast rush moves through. The lunch-plate-special rotates daily. The Friday-regional-special slot keeps the small adventurous-element alive. Cody’s pop-up Tuesday continues to sell out within an hour of the Friday-menu-post.
The technique-detail I always lean on: the temperature of the cooking-surface matters more than the temperature in the recipe. A hot pan with cold ingredients fails. A medium pan with room-temperature ingredients succeeds. Let the small ingredients come to the small kitchen-temperature before the small cooking starts.
Caramel Apple Crisp
Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 45 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour | Servings: 8
Ingredients
- 6 medium apples (Granny Smith or Honeycrisp), peeled, cored, and sliced thin
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1/3 cup caramel sauce (store-bought or homemade), plus more for drizzling
- 1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
- 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cold and cut into small cubes
- Vanilla ice cream or whipped cream, for serving
Instructions
- Preheat and prep. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Lightly butter a 9x13-inch baking dish and set aside.
- Season the apples. In a large bowl, toss the sliced apples with granulated sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, nutmeg, and lemon juice until evenly coated. Pour into the prepared baking dish and drizzle the 1/3 cup caramel sauce evenly over the top.
- Make the crisp topping. In a separate bowl, combine the rolled oats, flour, brown sugar, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, and salt. Add the cold butter cubes and use your fingers or a pastry cutter to work the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse crumbles with some pea-sized pieces of butter remaining.
- Assemble and bake. Sprinkle the crisp topping evenly over the apple layer. Bake uncovered for 40—45 minutes, until the topping is golden brown and the apple filling is bubbling around the edges.
- Finish and serve. Remove from the oven and let rest for 10 minutes. Drizzle with additional caramel sauce and serve warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a dollop of whipped cream.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 380 | Protein: 3g | Fat: 13g | Carbs: 65g | Fiber: 4g | Sodium: 115mg