Maple Apple Crisp

Last weekend brought some glorious fall weather, as well as the first signs of the seasonal color changes in the trees that makes this part of the country so gorgeous at this time of year.  My friend Allison (a future guest-blogger!) and I were boyfriend/husbandless for the day, so we enjoyed some girl-time while picking apples at a nearby orchard. 

                                              Photo credit: www.terhuneorchards.com

First off, we stopped at the market/general store area for a wine tasting.  There were all tasty, but not spectacular, but for $5 it was well worth it!  After that I had to indulge my craving for their amazing apple cider cinnamon & sugar donuts, fresh out of the oven.  I'm drooling just thinking about it. 


ANYWAYS. This was all a long way of explaining the inspiration for this post's recipe, Maple Apple Crisp.  I picked close to 5 lbs of Granny Smith and Fuji apples, both of which are perfect for baking.  I grew up loving my family's apple crisp recipe, but since I'm a sucker for anything maple-y, I couldn't resist working it in here. 

Without further ado:


Maple Apple Crisp
What You'll Need:
5 apples, peeled, cored, and sliced into small chunks
3/4 cup maple syrup (I used sugar-free to cut calories)
1/2 cup baking flour
3/4 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp brown sugar
1/4 cup unsalted butter, very softened
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 pinch salt


What To Do:
Preheat your oven to 375F.  Peel, core, and slice the apples, then place them into an 8x8" (or comparably sized) ungreased baking dish.  Pour the maple syrup over the apples, then toss them to coat all sides evenly. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, brown sugar, oats, butter, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  Sprinkle the mixture over apples.  Crumble the extra 2 tbsp of brown sugar over the rest of the topping so that it will melt while baking. Bake for 35 min or until the topping is golden brown.  Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.  Serves 8-9, depending on how large you cut the slices (and how much willpower you have to resist the temptation of a midnight snack).

For me, this is close to the perfect dessert.  The tartness of the Granny Smith apples blends well with the sweetness of the syrup and the topping.  I'm glad I used the sugar-free syrup, since I think this might have verged on too sweet if made with regular syrup. I accidentally left this in the oven for an extra 4-5 minutes, so the apples got rather soft, but the crunch from the toasted oats on top balanced it out.  This is an extremely easy recipe to make (10 minutes prep, max) and, best of all, you won't feel guilty going back for seconds!