Comfort food for me is not usually in the sweet category. I'm usually looking for salty fat rather than sugary fat. Being the recipient of someone else's apple surplus, I went on a hunt for an apple desert recipe. I was happy to find this apple crisp r on Joy the Baker's website. I altered it only slightly because you shouldn't mess with perfection. It was warm and comforting even with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side.Here is the recipe that I borrowed from Joy (with a few changes).
Filling:
5 to 6 medium-size apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1/4-inch slices. I used a mixture of Fuji, Granny Smith and Golden Delicious.
3 tbsp granulated sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
Topping:
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/3 cups lightly packed brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 stick unsalted butter, well-softened
2/3 cup finely chopped pecans ( I like my pecans toasted)
1/3 cup quick oats
Preheat the oven to 350. Generously grease an 8x8 baking pan with butter.
Place a layer of apple slices in the bottom of the pan and sprinkle on the sugar/cinnamon mixture. Continue layering apples and sprinkling with cinnamon/sugar until everything is used. Toss the apple mixture with the cinnamon sugar. The apples should be to the top of the pan. They will cook down.
For the topping, place the flour, brown sugar, nuts, cinnamon and oats in a large bowl and stir well with a wooden spoon. Work the butter into the mixture - pinching between fingertips. Take a full handful of the topping and mix it into the sugared apple mixture. Spread the rest of the topping evenly over the apples.
Bake the crisp in the dish on a baking sheet on the center oven rack until the topping is crunchy and the apples are bubbling, 55-60 minutes.
Serve hot but if you are eating it with ice cream you need to let it cool a bit or you won't have ice cream for long.
