Best Paleo Apple Crisp Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the best apples to use for apple crisp? ›

Under the simple butter-sugar-flour-and-oat topping is the apple filling scented with cinnamon. Our test kitchen says baking apples, like Rome or Cortland, are the best varieties to use for apple crisp, but Empire, Gala, or Braeburn apples are also good in this recipe.

If you are cooking for a longer time for a golden crust, try slicing your apples all a uniform 1/2 inch thick. Granny Smiths are a good choice since they are full of pectin, a natural thickening agent. They should keep the bottom from getting soggy.

Like an apple crisp, an apple crumble is a baked fruit dessert with a layer of topping. But unlike the crisp, the crumble topping rarely includes oats or nuts. Instead, a crumble's topping is more like streusel, made with flour, sugar and butter.

A combination of white sugar and molasses is your best bet for a brown sugar substitute, as that's exactly what brown sugar is made of (1). To make your own light brown sugar, mix 1 cup, or 200 grams (g), of granulated white sugar with 1 tablespoon (tbsp.), or 15 milliliters (mL), of molasses.

For the best pies, crisps, and other baked treats, apples need to be firm enough to hold their own during the cooking process. We call these apples “baking apples” and to namedrop, they include Braeburn, Cortland, Honey Gold, Jonathan, Fuji, Gala, Granny Smith, Haralson, and Newtown Pippin.

Baking: Start baking the apple crisp covered with foil. This allows the apples to soften without any risk of the topping over-browning. After about 20 minutes, remove the foil and let the crisp finish cooking uncovered. Once the juices are bubbling, the topping is golden brown, and the apples are tender, it is done!

The main reason your crumble topping isn't crunchy is probably because you haven't used Demerara sugar. Although, it could also be that you've got your topping ingredient quantities wrong: either too much or not enough flour and butter alongside the sugar.

Add a little extra fresh lemon juice to help prevent the apples from turning super brown. Prepare the entire apple crisp, cover well, and refrigerate the night before baking. Don't wait any longer than overnight before baking, to prevent the apples from browning too much or drying out/spoiling.

Yes, you can prepare the apples ahead of time and store them before making apple crisp. To prevent the apples from browning, toss them in lemon juice and store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours. When you're ready to make the apple crisp, simply proceed with the recipe as directed.

In the Original Picayune Creole Cook Book (1901) a recipe identical to the Brown Betty traveled under the name “Mulatto's Pudding” furthering the idea that the sweet-sounding Brown Betty was more a race-based epithet towards its maker than a homey moniker denoting golden-brown bread crumbs.

What's the difference between brown betty and apple crisp? ›

Both are very similar apple desserts, but the difference mainly comes down to the crumble topping: Instead of the flour and oat mixture used in an apple crisp, an apple brown betty uses breadcrumbs for its crumbly, delicious topping.

While both are fruit desserts that can be made in the oven in a baking dish, or on a stovetop skillet, cobblers and crisps have nuanced differences, including: Exterior: Cobblers are denser due to the biscuit dough topping and base, while crisps use oats and a streusel topping, making them lighter.

Crimson Crisp is the cool kid of fresh eating apples. This variety was discovered in 1971 in Cream Ridge, New Jersey. This gorgeous, rouge colored apple is known to be immune to scab and moderately resistant to leaf rust – the farmers are smiling right now.

You can still create a suitable substitute for brown sugar if you have a liquid sweetener like maple syrup, agave nectar, honey, brown rice syrup, or date syrup. Of these, date syrup is your best bet thanks to its caramel-like, almost nutty flavor that's reminiscent of molasses.

Gala apples are my favorite variety for this recipe – I like their sweet/tart flavor and firm texture. But if you have a favorite baking apple, feel free to use it here. Granny smith apples, Honeycrisps, Jonagolds, or a mix would all be excellent.

While there is an extremely wide variety of apples, all with varying flavors, the sweetest-tasting apple is fuji, followed by gala, honeycrisp, and Red Delicious apples. These apples are great for snacking and eating as is. Granny Smith, McIntosh, and Pink Lady fall on the tart end of the spectrum.

Any baking apple will work great! I tend to prefer Granny Smith apples but I also like Gala apples, Honeycrisp, Golden Delicious, or any other tart apple.