Yesterday I focused solely on food in order to banish the kitchen banshee that was ruining my life. For me the best place to begin to get grounded is to bake comfort food. I pulled out Rachel’s Allen’s Bake and discovered her Apple and Oat Crumble recipe. It was easy to make and you could make individual crumbles which is what I was looking for. Perfect!
Rachel cooks her apples first over the stove with some sugar and water. I added a little brandy and at the end just a splash of fresh lemon juice. You have to let them cool off a bit before adding the crumble topping.
Instead of my fingers I brought the flour and butter together using a pastry cutter before adding cinnamon, oats and brown sugar.
This is where the recipe did not come together, the crumble was too dry and powdery and I had lots leftover and I do not like waste so I am not typing up the recipe since I can not in good conscience recommend it.
It was good but it was not perfect. There was not enough oats to give it that hearty comforting texture. Also, I had to broil them in order for the crumble topping to finally brown. The apples were already cooked through, I did not want them to overcook! My favourite recipe of this kind is still The Barefoot Contessa’s Old-Fashioned Apple Crisp.
Last night we had chicken enchiladas for dinner with Spanish rice. Then I made herbal tea which we sipped with our individual apple crisps and I felt better. I made a regular dinner that required no thinking and a dessert that even though it was not everything I had hoped for, still tasted like home and love.
Nothing like a day of baking to make a foodie feel better!
Wow, I just said to my hubby about an hour ago that I need to make some apple crisp today, have some bruised apples I need to deal with and I come here, and there’s the recipe. Pretty cool!
These look so yummy and comfy, but I do agree, I prefer Ina Garten’s recipe, I’ve never cooked apples prior to baking them, I like them a little more firm. What a nice way to end the meal, and that touch of brandy, ooooh gotta try that! Thanks for reading my mind and sharing the recipe!
In crisp recipes, they usually suggest using your hands because of the warmth they provide. Your hands warm up the butter and cause it to soften and mix with the flour and sugar, making it come together.
This isn’t a task for a pastry cutter – which is great when you want the butter to remain in large pieces, like for flaky pastry. However, in a crisp, you need to either soften the butter in the microwave or use your hands.
Fascinating Ava! That’s the same situation I was in, we must have parallel lives or something!
Jessica, I agree, most of the time with crisps I would not use a pastry scraper but the last time I made one with my hands it got very tough and hard. I think I might pulse it in the food processor next time. Thanks for the advice! If it’s too warm, it will get too tough. Baking is always a chemistry experiment.
yum. that dinner you served also sounds good! i love apple crumble/crisp! I must make some soon; not something i usually think about making in the spring, but now that you mention it… why not!?!
thanks for sharing!
Yummy looking crumble. All the classic competition apple pies round here are made with pre-cooked apples, but somehow I prefer them to be cooked with the pie and I expect, crumble also.
Brandied apples in your crisp — yum!