Edible Alphabet Apple Crisp
Diane Zatz is a design educator who grows vegetables and cooks obsessively when not clicking on a computer keyboard.
This wonderful Skillet Apple Crisp Recipe is from the Edible Alphabet series at the Culinary Literacy Center, the Free Library of Philadelphia
This recipe is “As American as Apple Pie” and can be made on the stovetop with apples or any fruit of your choosing. Serve with ice cream or whipped cream. It comes together quickly when cooked in a skillet, but it can also be baked, the traditional way. It is very forgiving, therefore any varieties of apples will work. Also, other nuts can be substituted for the almonds. Pecans or chopped walnuts work really well! It was a fun dish to cook together virtually, because of the opportunities it presented to converse about varieties of apples, as well as to learn and share food related idioms.
The recipe serves four, but in my household, two of us splurged and finished the whole skillet, topped with whipped cream.
For another fast apple recipe, try Potluck Pass-Along Apple Pie
- Prep 10 minutes
- Cook 15 minutes
- Servings Makes 4
Ingredients
For the topping:
- 236 ml (1 cup) all-purpose flour
- 118 ml (1⁄2 cup) chopped almonds
- 118 ml (1⁄2 cup) light brown sugar
- 1.3 ml (1⁄4 teaspoon) salt
- 1.3 ml (1⁄4 teaspoon) cinnamon
- 113 grams (1⁄4 pound/1 stick) butter
For the fiilling:
- 5 medium apples
- 71 ml (1/3 c.up) granulated sugar
- 10 ml (2 teaspoons) cornstarch
- 1.3 ml (1⁄4 teaspoon) cinnamon
- Pinch of salt
- 30 ml (2 tablespoons) butter
Preparation
- For the topping: In a small bowl, stir together the flour, almonds, brown sugar, salt, and cinnamon. Melt butter in a pan over medium heat. Add butter to flour mixture and stir until small clumps form. Heat mixture in pan on low heat until golden brown (6 to 9 minutes). Spread topping on a large plate to cool.
2. For the filling: Core and slice apples. In a small bowl, stir together the sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon and salt.
3. In a medium saucepan, combine the butter, apples, and sugar mixture. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until apples are almost softened (8-10 minutes). Remove lid and cook until apples are cooked through and mixture has thickened slightly (about 5 minutes more).
4. Pour mixture into a serving dish or individual cups or bowls. Sprinkle topping on apples. If desired, serve with whipped cream or ice cream.
2 thoughts on “Edible Alphabet Apple Crisp”
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Diane Zatz
Diane Zatz is a graphic designer, educator, and editor at The Cook’s Cook. Diane and her husband divide their time between Philadelphia and their family farm in Lancaster County, Pa. They enjoy their off-screen time planting seeds and pulling weeds.
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I am not familiar with the volume units (ml) used for the dry ingredients. To me, ml is an abbreviation for milliliter, which is a volume measure for liquids. Please explain.
Also, you don’t specify, as is usually the case in modern recipes, whether you are listing table or kosher salt, or whether the butter is salted or unsalted.
I look forward to enjoying the product of this recipe.
Great questions, thank you! Because in the USA we are accumstomed to ingredients given in volume, when a small quantity of dry inmgredient, such as corn meal, is needed, it is easiest for us to provide the volume in milliliters. Instead of trying to weigh 1/4 cup of minced parsley, we offer the volume: 60 ml. If a large quantity is called for, you’ll see that we do offer metric conversions in grams or liters. Also, in Amwerican recipes it is assumed that table salt is the common denominator, and koshger salt of coarse salt is specified as needed. Also note that the saltiness (and other qualities) of kosher salt varioes greatly from brand to brand; we use Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt in our test kitchens. Last, you can assume that
butter” in our recipes calls for salted butter, except wehen unsalted butter is specified. Even in many pastry recipes we prefer salted butter, so do not assume that butter in a cake or frosting is unsalted. Thanks again for asking!