- If you love classic fall baking as much as I do,
you've got to make my apple crisp recipe.
Silky cinnamoned apples under a crisp, crunchy topping,
and yes, you should have it with a scoop of ice cream, too.
Hey, you're watching "Preppy Kitchen,"
where I, John Kanell,
teach you how to make delicious homemade dishes
to share with your family and friends.
This apple crisp will be ready before you know it,
so let's get started.
First off, let's make that crisp topping.
Into a medium bowl, we're gonna add
3/4 of a cup or 90 grams of all-purpose flour,
1/2 a teaspoon of salt,
1/2 a cup of packed brown sugar.
You can use light or dark.
It doesn't really matter, and that's about 100-plus grams.
Depends on how hard you pack it.
Give this a little bit of a breakup and a whisk.
Now we're gonna add in
1 1/4 cups of old fashioned rolled oats.
Those are the big ones, not the little chopped quick oats.
Mix it up one more time,
and now I'm gonna add in 3/4 of a cup or 170 grams
of cold butter that I had diced into little tiny pieces.
I like to do this step ahead of time
and then just keep it in the fridge
for when it's ready to use.
Right now, we're gonna do this the old fashioned way
and use our clean hands to mix this up,
and just smush it together.
You kind of want to smash the dry ingredients
into the butter
to create a crumbly crisp.
So I'm using both my hands
to kind of smash and slide the butter together.
Whoa! Keep it in the bowl, though.
You could also make this with melted butter.
If you don't want to touch this very much,
you're not into that,
just melt the butter, pour it in, mix it up
and set it aside and then crumble it.
That works, too.
Okay, so as you smush it together,
you'll see large clumps forming,
and once you're there, you're basically done.
I like to make one mega clump
and then just break it up into a crumble,
and this is gonna be a perfect crisp topping
for my apple crisp.
These are ready to set aside.
Wash those not-clean hands anymore and get your apples out.
To fill the baking dish,
I'll be peeling and slicing 10 small apples.
That's just under three pounds.
You could use a little bit more, or a little bit less.
It's totally up to you.
It's a really forgiving recipe, so don't stress about that.
Today, I'm using Granny Smith apples,
but you can use Honeycrisp, Gala.
Really any eating apple's gonna work pretty okay for this.
If there are any idle hands in the house with nothing to do,
put them to work on prepping these apples.
It will make everything go super fast.
But if that's not the case,
then you put some music or your favorite show on
and get to peeling.
Right now, I'm filming this video
just before the start of apple season,
but in a few weeks, I'll be able to go around
to some of the older apple trees that we have
and pick and use them for recipes that I like, like this.
I have no idea what any of the varieties are called, though.
We just have these ancient, gnarled apple trees
left to their own devices for decades,
so we've been pruning them
and clearing all the invasives around them,
so they'll kind of be more productive and happy.
And some of them are delicious eating apples,
and then some of them are like cider apples,
so they're full of tannins and definitely not for eating.
I learned that the hard way.
(playful music)
But they're perfect for making alcoholic apple cider with,
not pressed cider.
If there's any apple recipe you want me to try out,
let me know in the comments.
Many of the recipes you see me film
have been suggested by users, so I love your comments,
and I always find it interesting
to see what people want to make.
This, by the way, is a recipe
you do need to peel the apples for
because the skin is kind of tough.
Okay, clear this off, and on to the next step.
Once your apples are all peeled,
it's time to cut the flesh from the core
and then we'll slice them up.
Now we're gonna slice our apples into
like roughly 1/4 of an inch pieces.
You want to have a uniform size not for the aesthetics,
just so they all bake at the same rate.
I always say this, but no, no, no.
Yes, yes, yes.
You want to use your knuckles
to guide the blade of your knife,
so your little fingertips are kept safe and sound.
No dessert is worth a cut,
although for me, it's the cheese grater.
That's the most dangerous thing in the kitchen,
and you can let me know in the comments
if you think it's something else.
Maybe the mandolin.
I don't even own a mandolin,
specifically because I'm so of them.
Okay. (sighs) Take a breath.
Apples are all chopped.
We're gonna transfer them into a large bowl
and then get to mixing
with all the rest of the delicious ingredients.
Okay, so we're ready to mix all the ingredients together,
starting with one tablespoon of cornstarch
and you don't have to do this.
I'm just gonna sift some in
as I toss, to kind of get it evenly distributed.
It's not a big deal, though, but it makes me happy.
It sparks joy.
Okay, there's that.
Now, 1/3 of a cup of brown sugar
and you can use light or dark brown sugar,
and in a pinch, you could even use white sugar, too.
It's fine.
I just like the extra bit of caramel flavor
the brown sugar gives you.
Let's add 1/2 a teaspoon of cinnamon in.
I'm using some roasted cinnamon,
which is supposed to be more sweet and intense.
There's actually a very many varieties
that you could get of cinnamon.
So, interesting.
Whenever I have an apple dish,
I am hard pressed to not add freshly grated nutmeg.
I love the flavor and the aroma,
so I'm just gonna grate a little bit of nutmeg,
maybe like a 1/4 teaspoon into the apples.
And if it's nutmeg, it has to be freshly grated for me.
I just think it's smells and tastes totally different,
but I'm probably just being crazy.
You can let me know if I'm wrong.
Okay.
If you love apples and lemon, like I do,
go ahead and add a little bit of lemon zest in there.
Maybe just a teaspoon.
A little goes a long way to giving you a wonderful,
just bright taste to it.
I'm gonna squeeze about two tablespoons of lemon juice
over the apples right now,
as well as one teaspoon of vanilla.
Ah, there you go. Maybe a little bit more.
Shh! Don't tell anybody.
Give this a good toss.
We really want to combine all the flavors together.
Oh my gosh. The smell is beyond.
These kinds of crisps and crumbles are really easy
because you don't have to worry about
any kind of pastry crust.
It's just gonna bake the way it bakes and be delicious.
There's almost no prep,
aside from peeling those apples and slicing them.
Once our apples are uniformly coated,
it's time to plop those into
your eight by eight-inch baking dish.
It could be a nine by nine.
That'll work, too, so don't worry about it.
Even seven by seven.
We're ready to assemble.
So have your oven set to 350, so it's all nice and hot.
And we're gonna be dumping the apples in,
but not all at the same time.
You want to add a couple of layers in bit by bit.
So, layer number one.
Spread it out.
And I have a 1/4 cup of butter that I diced
into smallish pieces,
like I had for the crumble.
Just spread that through here.
The butter's gonna make everything
a little bit more luscious and silky.
It'll just be really good, trust me.
Then add more apples, more butter, more apples, more butter.
I nibbled on a few of these apples off camera
and they are so good.
So good!
All right, just pat everything down,
so it's, you know, mostly level,
add any remaining bits of butter in here,
and now top with your crisp.
So here you kind of just dump it out,
and if there are any big pieces,
you can crumble them up a bit.
This is a too much is never enough situation,
so don't be worried if it's mounded high, okay?
Press down.
Right now it looks like it's really high,
but those apples will soften when they bake,
release their juices,
and it'll all kind of come down a bit, so don't be worried.
This delicious dish is ready to go into the oven at 350
for an hour or until the top is golden
and juices are just bubbling through.
You'll see and smell what's happening. In you go.
My apple crisp is out of the oven
and baked for a little bit over an hour.
I wanted to get a really nice golden top,
and it is smelling so good.
It's time to cut into it
and plop on a big scoop of vanilla ice cream.
I don't know if it's much to look at,
but this is a dessert that you just can't beat,
and it's a must-make when apples are in season.
If you like this recipe, check out my apple playlist,
all my favorite apple recipes in one playlist for you.
Now it's time for a bite.
That is just so good.
You know it's good, I know it's good.
Let's make it together.
If you like my videos,
hit that like button, subscribe,
and I'll see you in the next apple video.