Dorothy Kern
I always make Easy Apple Crisp when I don’t feel like making a full pie. Making an apple crumble without the crust feeds a crowd and is so much easier than rolling out pastry.
People are constantly telling me how good my apple crisp and crumb apple pie recipes are – you’ll be the star of the show if you make this for your family!
Table of Contents
Why you’ll LOVE my Easy Apple Crisp Recipe
If pressed to choose my favorite pie, I would choose apple, but not just any recipe: I’d choose MY apple pie recipe. I’ve been making that recipe for over 20 years and it’s always a huge hit with family and friends.
The reason my recipe stands out is because I ensure that the apples are fully cooked through. There is nothing worse than biting into an apple pie and having chewy or crunchy apples that spring back at you.
My easy apple crisp recipe without oats has fully cooked apples and a sweet and crunchy crumble topping.
I’ve been making this recipe for YEARS and am always getting asked for the recipe – so here it is!
Sometimes you just want to make apple pie without the crust, and that’s when you make an Old Fashioned Apple Crisp. This is the best apple crisp recipe! It feeds a crowd and is easy to transport because it’s made in a 9×13-inch baking dish.
Ingredients in Apple Crumble
Butter: You’ll need cold unsalted butter to make the crumble.
Flour: To make the body of the crumble topping.
Sugar: We’ll use granulated sugar in the crumble and the apples.
Cinnamon: For flavoring the apples.
Apples: I love a tart Granny Smith apple for this recipe, but you can use your favorite apples.
How to partially cook apples for crisp
I pre-cook them. That’s right: I par-boil my apple slices before making pie or crisps or cobbler. Boiling them for just a few minutes makes the end result have the perfect bite of apple every time.
My favorite apple pie also has a crumble topping, like a Dutch Apple Pie. IMO, the crumble makes the pie: it gives it a sweet crunchy topping instead of just another slab of crust.
Why am I talking so much about apple pie? Because my Apple Crisp recipe is basically my apple pie recipe without the crust!
How to make Apple Crisp from scratch
- Pre cook your apples as directed above.
- Mix flour and sugar, then add cold grated butter. I like to grate my butter then chill it so it’s easier to cut in with a pastry cutter.
- Layer your apples with cinnamon sugar in the pan.
- Top with crumble then bake and serve warm!
FAQ
You can use any apples you like for this recipe. The crumble topping is sweet, so I like to use Granny Smith apples. The sweet topping and the tart apples go so well together.
I use my favorite magical apple slicer! It slices, peels and cores the apples all at the same time. Plus it’s fun for kids to use.
Yes, you should store apple crisp in the refrigerator. It will last about 3 days, but it shouldn’t because everyone will gobble it up.
The beauty of my crumble recipe is you can just use granulated sugar. You can use a combination or use brown sugar if you want – but traditionally I’ve always made it with white sugar.
Yes because there is no crust.
If you use a sweeter apple, like a Fuji or Gala, you may want to omit the sugar sprinkled on top, because those apples are much sweeter than Granny Smith. They’ll also cook faster so you won’t need to boil them as long.
Other delicious apple recipes:
This would go perfect after dinner:
Have you made this recipe?
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Easy Apple Crisp
Ingredients
For the pie:
- 6-7 medium Granny Smith apples (about 3 pounds)
- ¼ cup (50g) sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
For the crumb:
- ⅔ cup (134g) sugar
- 1 ½ cups (186g) all-purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 12 tablespoons (170g) unsalted butter
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a 9×13-inch pan with nonstick cooking spray.
- Remove butter from the refrigerator and grate it using the large holes of a box grater. Place it back in the refrigerator until you're ready to use it.
- Peel and core the apples, then slice into thin slices. I like using my apple peeler for this step. Place one inch of water in the bottom of a large pot. Add apples and cook, stirring occasionally, approximately 3-5 minutes after water boils, or just until the apples start to turn the slightest bit opaque.
- While apples are cooking, add the crumb ingredients to a large bowl. Using a fork or pastry cutter, cut the ingredients together until they form coarse crumbs, about the size of a pea.
- Drain apples very well. Let them sit in the strainer for a few minutes to cool, then place them in prepared pan. Sprinkle ¼ cup sugar and cinnamon over apples. Add your crumb mixture evenly on top.
- Bake for about 40-50 minutes, or until crumble is lightly browned around the edges.
- May be made a day in advance. Refrigerate overnight. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream.
Nutrition Information
Nutritional information not guaranteed to be accurate
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All text and images © DOROTHY KERN for Crazy for Crust. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words, or link back to this post for the recipe. Disclaimer: Nutrition information shown is not guaranteed to be accurate.
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Published on: September 1, 2021
Quick and tasty! Just what I like.
I made this for the baking challenge and it was great! Very easy to make and the prep went quickly. Perfect cozy fall dessert, warm and delicious. Thanks!
I love how easy this was to make. I am totally going to try it with peaches too. The crumble was the perfect amount of sweetness.
This came out delicious! I loved the edges the best and we topped it with some vanilla ice cream. The only step I felt like could have been optional was precooking the apples. I felt like they were mushier than I prefer when I normally just bake without precooking. So next time I’ll likely skip that step and just bake with the topping. Definitely easier than pie and so delicious!
This is delicious and so easy! I loved cooking the apples first so they were nice and soft. Definitely will be making it again!
Super easy recipe. I wasn’t sure how it would taste without brown sugar in the crumb on top, but it was still very flavorful. It’s perfectly balanced and definitely was even better with vanilla ice cream on top. This will be my go to apple pie recipe now. Much easier..haha
So glad you liked it!
I made this yesterday for dessert. I had some Apples (Pink Lady and Honey Crisp) that were in desperate need of being consumed in the next few days. So, I used them instead of Granny Smith’s and didn’t peel them (I didn’t want them to turn to mush)…Bonus! The dish turned out delicious! Oh, soo easy and got raves from the fam (yet, another Bonus!). I did bake mine for about 50-55 minutes in order to get the crust more golden.
Thanks for a great recipe! I’m sure I will use it over and over with different fruits and whatever I have on hand. And, will definitely try it with Granny Smiths!
I love any dessert with apple in it. I noticed you used all granny smith apples. Do you think this recipe would be good if I used half granny smith and half red delicious?
Love it!! Apple crisp one my favorites, ( like omitting the oats & still get the crunch)!!
Love the idea of par boiling the apples. My friend makes a pretty mean apple pie and she uses a variety of apples in one pie. I must admit it makes a complex flavour.