This easy apple crisp is made the old fashioned way like Grandma used to make, and is perfect with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and salted caramel sauce!
A true classic Fall dessert, this easy apple crisp recipe is reminiscent of generations past. Pop this apple crisp in the oven and wait for the delicious smell to waft through your house!
Do you have a classic Fall dessert that you just LOVE? I have several, but one of them is definitely this apple crisp recipe! Growing up, my Mom had two classic desserts that she made… one was her famous Carrot Cake, and the other was a mouthwatering apple crisp.
This isn’t her exact recipe, but it’s one that I’ve tweaked and been working on for a while, and I’ve finally gotten it just right! While I do love pumpkin, apple is actually my favorite Fall flavor. Mostly because of this crisp lol.
Some apple crisp recipes don’t use oats, which is totally fine if that’s your thing, but I LOVE the crispy oat topping, so I made sure to add a good amount of it.
What apples do I use for this easy apple crisp
Simply put, you can use any apples that you like! My personal favorite for this recipe is the golden delicious variety, but Granny Smith or Fuji are some other great varieties.
To peel, or not to peel
It’s 100% up to you! I’ve made this recipe both ways, and I like them both equally. Generally, when I make this easy apple crisp, I’m making it for my family, and my kids wouldn’t eat it with the skins on, so I peel them more often than not. I’m sure this goes without saying, but if you choose to leave the skins on, be sure to wash the apples thoroughly 🙂
That right there is my FAVORITE way to enjoy hot apple crisp… with a cold scoop of vanilla bean ice cream, and drizzled with my luscious browned butter salted caramel sauce! If you’ve never tried it that way… you totally need to!
Looking for other recipes that use that caramel sauce?
- Caramel Apple Pie Bars
- Bourbon Vanilla Ice Cream
- Vanilla Chai Cheesecake Bars
- Butterfinger Toffee Cookies
I invite you all to join me in making my favorite Fall dessert… this easy apple crisp. Once you have it in the oven, you’ll LOVE the smell that fills your house!
Shop the recipe
- 8″ baking dish – I love the clean white look, plus it bakes beautifully!
- Vegetable peeler – You probably already have one, but in case you don’t, this one is my personal favorite!
- Pastry Cutter – I love that this is sturdy and the blades don’t bend nearly as easily as some other brands!
Did you make this? Be sure to leave a review below and tag me @the_chunky_chef on Facebook and Instagram!
Ingredients
Spiced apples
- 6 golden delicious apples peeled and chopped (other varieties can be used, can also be sliced)
- 2 Tbsp granulated sugar
- 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 1/2 tsp lemon juice
Crisp topping
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 3/4 cup old fashioned oats quick oats can be used, but it may have a slightly different texture
- 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- pinch of kosher salt
- 1/2 cup cold unsalted butter diced into small cubes
Instructions
Prepare
- Preheat oven to 350 F degrees. Butter an 8×8 baking dish, or spray with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside.
Make spiced apples
- In a mixing bowl, add chopped apples, granulated sugar, 3/4 tsp of the cinnamon and lemon juice. Stir to combine, then transfer to prepared baking dish.
Make topping
- In a separate mixing bowl, add topping ingredients (brown sugar, oats, flour, 1 tsp cinnamon, salt, and diced cold butter).
- Use a pastry cutter to cut the butter into the oat mixture, using a slight downward twisting motion, until mixture resembled pea-sized crumbs. Alternatively, you can use two forks or even your hands to cut butter into the mixture.
Bake
- Spread topping over apples in baking dish, and gently pat to even it out. Bake 40-50 minutes, until golden brown and bubbly.
Serve
- Serve warm and enjoy! We love to top ours with some vanilla bean ice cream, or whipped cream.
Want to save this recipe for later? Click the heart in the bottom right corner to save to your own recipe box!
Chef Tips
- The amount of chopped apples would be about 6-7 cups.
- Note that all ovens bake differently, so yours may take a little less or a little more time to bake.
- I don’t have an issue with my crisp being watery (due to the water content in the apples), but if a little juice at the bottom is something you want to avoid, you can try adding a little all purpose flour to the apple mixture.
Make-Ahead Directions:
- Bake as directed. After the crisp cools, cover and refrigerate until the next day. When you’re ready to reheat, set it out at room temp for 20 minutes or so, then bake at 350°F for about 30 minutes, or until hot throughout.
- I haven’t tested assembling this ahead of time (although I’m pretty sure other readers have done this successfully – you’d have to check the other comments).
- I haven’t tested freezing this recipe, although many other readers have frozen it successfully.
Video
Nutrition Disclaimer
The Chunky Chef is not a dietician or nutritionist, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. If calorie count and other nutritional values are important to you, we recommend running the ingredients through whichever online nutritional calculator you prefer. Calories can vary quite a bit depending on which brands were used.
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Cierra says
Reallt great recipe but too sweet in my opinion (not a healthnut), there was a lot of brown sugar in the crumb mixture making it almost sandy in consistency- I would take it down to 3/4 like the flour and oats. I added vanilla to the apple mixture. Overall delicious! 🙂
Victoria G says
This recipie was awesome! Made for the first time for dessert for my family. I think the key to this recipe is the seasoning of the apples 🍎 i also mixed the type of apples granny smith and golden delicious! I cant wait to make this again.
Jordan says
Delicious! Simple recipe! I followed recipe exact, except I only had soft Country Crock butter (salted).
Sharon says
Made this twice with my bountiful apple picking baskets. Really tasty! I increased the temp to 375 and it was mildly caramelized in 45 min or so. It did not last the day in our house…
Cindy says
Easy and delicious!!
Kim Dahlberg says
Only change I made was adding about 1/4 cup Heath Bar bits to the topping…WOW!!!
Gave the crunchy topping just a bit if caramel chewiness. Best apple crisp recipe I’ve found yet 👍🏼
Penny says
This is my favorite apple crisp recipe. The recipe is very easy to follow and very delicious.
Barbara Feys says
I would give this recipe 10 stars if I could. I didn’t make any changes to this amazing recipe. It’s even better the next day for breakfast. I have tried many recipes for apple crisp and finally found the one we had as kids back in the 1950’s. We had a Macintosh apple tree in the back yard and my mom made apple pies, apple sauce and apple crisp. Macintosh apples are jucier and release more apple flavor into bake goods causing the crisp to be more moist. I add 1 or 2 delicious apples to give a little crunch. I can stop searching apple crisp recipes now because I’ve found the winner! Thank you Chunky Chef!♥️💕
Helene says
I’ve made this three times this fall. Delicious every time.
Marilyn says
Best Apple Crisp I have ever made!!!!
Tori says
I’ve made this before as is and it was amazing but would I be able to replace the butter with coconut oil? My boyfriend is allergic to dairy and I want him to be able to eat it. Thanks!
The Chunky Chef says
I haven’t tested this recipe using coconut oil, so I can’t say for certain how well it would work or whether any changes would need to be made. If you do some experimenting, I’d love to know how it turns out 🙂
V says
I tried it with Becel vegan ‘butter’ today, it was perfect.
Eden heim says
I will sure try this looks so good
Morgan jackson says
I have made SO MANY of your recipes, each NEVER FAILS. this will be my family’s new apple crisp recipe. I wouldn’t change a thing. Thank you again for a beautiful family dish ❤️
Deb says
We followed the recipe and the topping was dry and tasted like flour what happened
The Chunky Chef says
It sounds like the butter maybe wasn’t cut into the topping mixture enough.
Carolyn says
this was excellent,
Amands says
I’m glad I read the other reviews. It was still quite sweet even with reducing 50% of the sugar the recipe called for. Still, very tasty.
Tammy Cole says
Recipe is perfect and easy to assemble. I added finely chopped pecans to the crumble topping. Turned out fine and tasted oh so good!!!
ririe says
i made this for my mom, just replaced the granny smith with golden delicious since we didn’t have any! She normally strays away from eating apple flavored things, but admitted to me that she snuck a few bites, lol
Karen Selnick says
Simple, easy and delicious. This is how recipes should be. I made this apple crisp with Honeycrisp and halfed the recipe, but I have also made with 1/2 Honeycrisp and 1/2 Granny Smith…which is awesome.
Thanks for the recipe!
Mel says
Perfection! We added some vanilla to the topping, but this recipe will definitely be a staple in our house!