It’s 4th of July! And nothing says ‘Merica like an apple crisp recipe from a mom who taught you to cook and spends her days playing jazz and volunteering at her church. My mom is the reason I cook. When we were young, every night for dinner we had a choice between doing dishes or helping mom cook. My siblings chose cleaning for the lower time commitment aspect, and I chose cooking because it was more fun. My siblings are smart, but no one in the family can boil water better than I can.

This recipe is one of my mom’s favorites. It’s delicious, crowd-pleasing, easy, and can be made ahead and frozen for later. I’m pretty sure my mom always has a rotating frozen apple crisp in her freezer. The only thing you really need to know about this recipe before we get started is that it’s really addicting. Really. And you will, somehow, justify eating this with each meal including as your morning breakfast (it’s apples!). You’ve been warned, now let’s get cooking!

Moms are the BEST cooking buddies! And yes, you do need this Apple Peeler – Corer from Williams – Sonoma to make this recipe much easier to make

Apples galore!

Ingredients
1 1/2c flour
1 1/2c sugar
1tsp salt
1tsp cinnamon
2tsp nutmeg
2 sticks COLD butter
3-4lbs apples (fuji or gala)

Instructions

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees

In a large bowl, sift or fork-mix together flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Cut butter into small squares. Crumbling the butter in your fingers into the dry ingredients  until it resembles a crumbly texture (see photo below).

Yup, you actually do need to measure

Make sure to mix your dry ingredients before adding your butter

Here’s the right consistency for your crumble top

Use apple peeler-corer (I like this one from Williams Sonoma) to peel and core apples. Cut up apple into 1/3 or 1/4 pieces and place them into a large, 16 3/4″ x 10 1/2 glass rectangular bake, piling the apples in until rounded (see photo below).  Smoosh the crumble topping on top of apples (see photo below). Place the glass baker on a cookie sheet. This helps catch any drippings when you put it in the oven.

Make sure your apples are nice and piled up – they cook down about 1/3 in the oven

Smoosh the toppings down on your apples so it’s nice and compact before baking

At this point, you can wrap in aluminum foil and freeze for an easy make-ahead meal. I swear, my mom always has this in her freezer for a last-minute dessert!

Bake in 375 degree oven for 50-60 minutes, letting cool before serving. I serve this with vanilla ice cream and (shhhh) I also eat this as breakfast!

Ta-Da! ‘Merican apple crisp!