Grandma Mary’s Apple Crisp with Sweet Biscuit Topping
This buttery, cinnamon-scented apple crisp recipe has a simple, sweet biscuit topping you’ll love.
Apple crisp with sweet biscuit topping
Photo Credit : Amy TraversoMy grandma Mary made this buttery, cinnamon-scented crisp every fall, and to me, it’s the flavor of home. This is her adaptation of a recipe from the November 1945 issue of Country Gentleman magazine; I still have the original, now tissue-thin and torn at the creases. I make it in summer or fall, filling it with whatever’s fresh: apples, blueberries, peaches, nectarines, raspberries, or pears. But it really is best with apples.
This is probably a different sort of apple crisp than you’re used to. It has a simple, sweet biscuit topping made with flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, and eggs. That’s it. Just drizzle with the butter and sprinkle with cinnamon. In flavor and texture, it resembles a cross between a biscuit and a sugar cookie and I love it. You can serve it with a scoop of ice cream, a drizzle of heavy cream, or no topping at all.
Notes: You can cut your prep time in half by using an old-fashioned apple corer/peeler, which makes short work of cutting the apples into perfect, even slices. For the perfect texture, I like to mix tender-tart apples, such as McIntosh or Jonathan, with firm-sweet ones, such as Jazz, Pink Lady, or Jonagold. The tender apples cook down and create a sort of thick sauce, in which the firmer slices are suspended—a mixture of smoothness and texture.
Yield:
8 to 10 servingsIngredients
10 large apples, peeled, cored, and cut into1/4-inch-thick rings or slices (see Note)
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoons table salt
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
8 tablespoons (1 stick) salted butter, melted and cooled
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350°F, and set a rack to the middle position. Arrange the sliced apples in an even layer in a 9- by 13-inch baking dish (no need to grease it); set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Add the eggs and, using a fork or a pastry cutter, work in until crumbly. The mixture will look like streusel, with a mix of wet and dry bits. Have no fear; the eggs provide enough liquid.
Spread the topping evenly over the apples, then drizzle all over with the melted butter and sprinkle with cinnamon.
Bake until the topping is golden brown and apple juices are bubbling, 45 to 55 minutes. Let cool 20 minutes, then serve warm from the pan.
Amy Traverso
Amy Traverso is the senior food editor at Yankee magazine and co-host of the public television series Weekends with Yankee, a coproduction with WGBH. Previously, she was food editor at Boston magazine and an associate food editor at Sunset magazine. Her work has also been published in The Boston Globe, Saveur, and Travel & Leisure, and she has appeared on Hallmark Home & Family, The Martha Stewart Show, Throwdown with Bobby Flay, and Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. Amy is the author of The Apple Lover’s Cookbook, which was a finalist for the Julia Child Award for best first-time author and won an IACP Cookbook Award in the “American” category.
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