Apple crisp is one of the first things I ever learned how to make back in the olden days of junior high school Home Ec class. I fell in love with the dessert instantly, with its rich crumbly topping and soft sweet apple pieces. Plus...it has apples, so it's "healthy", right? Right! Or something. However, for all the apple crisp I've made in my life, I've never made an apple crisp quite like Quick Apple Crisp {page 472}.
I was drawn to this recipe because of my love for apple crisp in general, and because of a couple of unique ingredients in the recipe. The apple layer is sweetened with maple syrup, which sounded like a genius idea to me. Also, there were walnuts included in the topping.
The maple syrup turned out to be not such a great idea. I generally make the apple layer by tossing apples with sugar, cinnamon, and flour {to help create a "sauce" out of any extra liquid that is exuded from the apples during cooking}. However, adding maple syrup just added to the liquid factor. The bottom layer was basically apple soup when it came out of the oven. It was not the end of the world. I just used a slotted spoon to serve the portions, and dumped the "soup" out of the bottom of the pan at the end. I think that the maple syrup would have been a good idea if some corn starch or flour were included in that part of the recipe, as it gave the apples a really lovely flavor.
The walnuts in the topping were DYNAMITE. The Ninjahusband decreed that I should never make apple crisp again without including walnuts in the topping.
Over all, the topping was delicious. The apple part could use a little work. It was a good recipe, in general, it just needs a little tweaking.
-- Your Friendly Neighborhood Batgirl
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Have you ever seen maple sugar or date sugar? Maybe either would work, to add a caramel-ish flavor without adding liquid. P.S. I just now thought that apple crisp sounds like a yummy breakfast! :-)
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