Dear Caitlin,

I apologize for my recent dereliction in blogging.  As I mentioned, I came down with the flu.  A week after getting the flu shot.  Apparently, it takes two weeks for that to take effect.  Which is so unfair I can’t even deal.

And right as I was beginning to recover, my parents came to visit.  And that’s wonderful, but not conducive to blogging.  BUT – it gave me such a good opportunity to cook delicious things I wouldn’t otherwise cook.  Like this apple crisp.

It’s unbelievably delicious.  You’re going to want to make it immediately.  And, if you think about it, it kind of counts as breakfast.  All that fruit.  All those oats.  And if you serve it with ice cream, there’s your dairy.  True fact.

We start with a bunch of apples.  Braeburn, if you can get them.

Lemon, as per usual, is the key to everything delicious.

And then we add sugar and flour.  Fruit, sugar, and flour have to be some of the most beautiful things.

Then we add the crisp topping.  I used that Chinese cassia cinnamon you gave us as part of that spice-pack wedding present.  It was, unsurprisingly, AMAZING.

I love crumbling butter into dough with my fingers.  It’s like playing in a sandbox.

All that deliciousness gets baked up.

Dishes like this should be shared with parents.  They deserve it.

This recipe is adapted from Joy the Baker’s Strawberry Raspberry Crisp, which is incredible, and you should definitely make it when strawberries are back in season.

Recipe
Ingredients

Apple Base
4 Braeburn apples, peeled, cored, and diced
Juice of 1 Lemon
1/3 Cup All-Purpose Flour
1/3 Cup Sugar

Crisp Topping
1 Cup All-Purpose Flour
1 Cup Packed Brown Sugar
3/4 Cup Oats
1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon (I used Chinese Cassia, which has a high fat content)
1/2 teaspoon Ground Nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon Ground Ginger
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 Stick (1/2 Cup) Butter, cubed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Begin by peeling, coring, and cubing the apples.  Put the diced apples in a large bowl and combine with the juice of one lemon, 1/3 cup of flour, and 1/3 cup of sugar.  Rest the bowl in the refrigerator as you prep the topping.

Combine flour, sugar, oats, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and salt in large mixing bowl.  Mix in the butter with your fingers.  I like to start with a frozen stick of butter and use a cheese grater to break it down.  Once it’s grated, I put it in the freezer again for fifteen minutes or so to stiffen it up.  Then combine with the dry ingredients.

Take out the fruit bowl.  Toss a cup or so of the topping with the fruit mix.  Put the fruit mix in the bottom of a baking dish, and cover with the remaining topping.

Bake for 30 minutes or so, until topping is brown and, well, crisped.  Let it set for fifteen minutes before serving (preferably with ice cream).