Apple Crisp

In the tradition of "Life is short; eat dessert first." here is last night's dessert recipe. The main dish was Sole Meunier, which will come along later!

Several years ago, I realized that I had a habit of continually trying new versions of dishes for which I already had a great recipe. Now, I mark those favorite recipes as The Best, so that I'll know to stop trying to find another one! This is one of those, my very favorite recipe for Apple Crisp. It appears in a little booklet I got, and I believe the author is Jeanne Amero. The booklet is aptly titled, "Apple Recipes"! I dearly love cooking and baking with apples.

Apple Crisp

5 apples, peeled and sliced
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup old-fashioned oats
3/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 stick butter, softened
1/4 cup apple juice or water

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Put half the apples in a greased 9" x 9" pan. Blend together remaining ingredients, except juice, and crumble half the flour mixture over the apples. Cover with remaining apples and flour mixture. Pour juice (or water) over the top. Bake 35 to 45 minutes, depending on the temperature of your oven. The top should be golden brown and crisp.

DONNA'S NOTES: I assemble the flour mixture in my food processor, so it doesn't matter if the butter is softened or not. You can reduce the sugar by as much as one-half without affecting the flavor. I've used any number of types of apples in this, so use whatever you have on hand.