I don’t mess around with crispy things.
Except for potato chips and all other fried foods.
But when it comes to things that should be soft, like my flat-ironed hair, or my workout socks (TMI but I’m leaving it and thanks for not judging), or those addicting Oreo brownies that I can’t stop eating… I said it before and I’ll say it again: crispy’s just not my thang.
But friends, butter and sugar always wins in the end. Always. Even when the recipe says “crisp”.
And although I’m sitting here in apple crisp heaven with a little sugar sticking to my fingers and could potentially forget everything else in the world, I need to know one thing.
Who the heck named this delicious thing “apple crisp” when it’s really not even crispy? It’s soft, sweet, and perfectly chunky in a wonderful butter/sugar way. And it’s just chunky enough for easy crust snatching when you happen to casually walk by the pan for the third time. Which we both know really means the sixth time.
Classic Apple Crisp
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 8 1x
Description
My Grandma’s recipe for classic apple crisp! Perfectly thick and gooey with a delicious buttery crust. The BEST fall dessert.
Ingredients
- 4 cups sliced or diced apples
- 1 tablespoon flour
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/3 cup butter
- 3/4 cup oatmeal
- 3/4 cup flour
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350. Combine the first three ingredients and place in a greased 8×8 baking dish.
- Combine the remaining ingredients and sprinkle over the top of the apple mixture.
- Bake 30 minutes at 350. Serve warm with whipped cream or ice cream, or drizzled with caramel or honey. Refrigerate leftovers.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 30 mins
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: apple crisp, crisp recipe, fall dessert, apple recipe, easy apple recipe
It’s not fall without apple crisp.
Breakfast, anyone?
I give you permission.
Hi! Making this over the weekend- should the butter be melted? Or cold and cubed? And should apples be peeled? Thanks!
I love this crisp so much that I made it twice in 2 days. Gave too much of the first one away! I like how it’s not full of fall spices – it allows the sweet of the brown sugar and the tart of the apples to shine. Yum!!!
Do you have a recipe using Apple pie filling? I have a can to use up? And one for home-made chocolate pop corn? Thankyou!
Hi, I just found your website on a search for ‘apple crisps’ so I
haven’t made it yet, but printed it. Just wondering why you have
baking soda included as I’ve never used it in a crisp recipe.
MAybe it’s better; I will know soon. Thanks a lot!
Terrific recipe. Super easy. Just added some fresh lemon juice, tsp of cinnamon, half tsp ground cloves, and some pecans into the topping. Also baked it an extra 15 minutes to get it softer, but prob because I used more apples than the recipe called for. Gotta add the vanilla ice cream! Happy September!!
Very good recipe! I made it today using about two more apples than called for in a 2.5 qt. dish. I added salt and cinnamon to the mixture and omitted baking soda from the topping. Took 35 minutes to bake.
Glad you enjoyed the recipe, Terri!
Made this recipe yesterday. Doubled it, in fact. Not one morsel was left at the end of dinner. Soooo good.
I did make one change… I sprinkled the apples heavily with cinnamon before adding the crumble topping.
Served it with Cinnabon ice cream (mostly because the stores don’t have cinnamon ice cream in stock yet). Very yum!
Thanks. This is exactly how apple crisp should be.
🙂
LOVE this recipe! Made it for a diy craft night and it was a hit! Will be making this again!
Sounds like the perfect thing to eat while crafting!
This may sound stupid, I’m new at this, but do you use green apples for this? I made it one other time with gala apples and it was wonderful but I had someone else do my shopping this time and they brought back green apples…
Green apples work great! They’re a little more tart, so it works well withe sugar so it’s not terribly sweet.
I have a sweet tooth and this was too sweet for me and my husband. We still ate it😋The textures were perfect but next time I’ll cut the sugar by 1/2.
Thank you for sharing this blog, It is about kids classic apple crisp, it is an excellent blog, and it’s so easy for understanding.
Way too much sugar! Disappointing.
I just baked this, wondering which apples you used? I used honey crisp and they didn’t soften enough and also the crumble was more powder like then crispy/crunchy like your crumble in your photos? It tasted delicious… but I prefer a crispier crumble? not sure what I did wrong…
This takes way longer than 30 min at 350°.
Also, I’m assuming the butter is to be cut into small pieces and dotted over the topping?
which apples did you use for your apple crisp?
Hi Elle! We’d opt for something crisp and tart like Granny Smith or Honeycrisp.
Hi! Do you melt the better and mix it with the rest of the topping, or do you mix it room temp?
We’d actually suggest mixing it with cold butter with a pastry blender or fork! It will give you that delicious crumbly topping. 🙂
Can you give me the nutritional value of this apple crips. Thank you sharing your recipes.
Hi Tracey! We use a tool like this one to calculate nutrition facts: https://www.verywellfit.com/recipe-nutrition-analyzer-4157076.
So these are essentially cute mini apple crumbles
Can you use self rising flour instead?
Hi, Michelle. Self-rising flour does behave differently in baked goods – so my answer is I’m not sure. We have never tried that substitution. It might work, but you’ll likely get a more puffy topping.
Hi, Brittany! You were absolutely right – there was something wrong with the recipe. After re-testing it, we realized that there was a typo. The reason your end result was so watery was that we had (accidentally) omitted the flour from the topping. The recipe is now correct, so if you try it again you should have a much less watery apple crisp. Also, the flour will help tame the sweetness in the topping. You can also cut back the amount of sugar in the topping to your liking. 🙂
I cooked this looked amazing and was so excited to try it but the end result was absolutely disgusting. My dish came out very watery, and tasted horrible. My mom went to try it I warned her not to, she actually spit it out. Way to much sugar, same problems that other people had. Something must be wrong with this recipe.
Sorry to hear that, Brittany. We will look into it.
I love everything about this recipe and I made it this morning but it came out entirely too watery. Does it thicken as it settles?
Hi Josie! After re-testing the recipe, we realized that there was a typo. The reason your end result was so watery was that we had (accidentally) omitted the flour from the topping. The recipe is now correct, so if you try it again you should have a much less watery apple crisp.
Holy moly, this is fantastic! So easy to cook, and so delicious! 5 stars!
Though it tasted great, I too had mine turn out far too liquidy, to the point where it was soupy almost. Is the 1 tbsp of flour a typo?
Hi Suhani! After re-testing the recipe, we realized that there was a typo. The reason your end result was so watery was that we had (accidentally) omitted the flour from the topping. The recipe is now correct, so if you try it again you should have a much less watery apple crisp. There is 1 Tbsp. flour mixed with the apples, as well as 3/4 c. flour in the topping.
Try it again with sweet and non-juicy kind of apples. It is important to peel off the apples, and to cut them on small pieces.