Day 174 - What To Do With All of Those Apples

To celebrate hitting the 50 lb. mark at yesterday mornings weigh in I decided to spend the day apple and pumpkin picking at a local orchard with my darling husband and boys.

Now, we have a ton of apples. We do this every fall, and we almost never finish them all. So this year I'm determined to fully utilize and enjoy falls bounty. I'm going to share all of my apple recipes with you all week, maybe not every day, but close to it : )  And today we'll start with apple crisp.

I love apple crisp, it's soooooo easy and quick. And the ingredients are always on hand in my kitchen, and probably yours, too. Give me 15 minutes to prep and 45 minutes to bake and voila! A nice warm, sweet and spiced apple dessert!

Kara's Apple Crisp   

• 4 large Granny Smith Apples
• 3 Tbsp. white sugar
• juice from 1/2 lemon
• 1/8 cup All Purpose flour
• 1/8 cup white sugar
• 1/8 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/8 cup Quaker rolled oats
• 3 Tbsp. cold salted butter
• Pinch of salt
• Pinch of ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

You will also need and small 8 x 8 x 2 inch baking dish or 4 ramekins. I used my Corningware Ramekins that I found at Target recently. 


This recipe was originally written for twice as much topping for the same amount of apples. This amount is more waistline friendly and still packs a lot of flavor.

Serves 4

1. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Peel, core, and chop your apples into 1 inch cubes and toss with the lemon juice and 3 Tbsp white sugar. You can add cinnamon here if you like. Set aside.
3. Combine the remaining ingredients in a medium bowl and use your fingers or two forks to cut the butter into the other ingredients till crumbly. You can also use a food processor to do this if you have one, use the pulse option till it just comes together.
4. Place you apples in your baking dish or separate evenly between the ramekins including and juices that have settled to the bottom.
5. Spread the crumb topping evenly over the apples.
6. Place onto a baking sheet to catch any apple drippings and bake for 35-45 minutes, until a knife inserted into the center gets no resistance.
7. Allow to cool for about 20 minutes and enjoy warm or room temperature.

5 Points Plus for Weight Watchers as written above. And the portions are big! I count this as two fruit servings (a little more than 1 cup of apples).
(For a special surprise inside, place one square chewy caramel candy at the top of the apples in each ramekin then top with crumb topping. It will melt through the apples as it bakes and add another layer of rich deliciousness to the crisp.)