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.
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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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Sarah says
Delicious! I subbed the brown sugar for coconut sugar and the granulated sugar for a Monk fruit / ethryrol
blend and used Einkorn flour. Yum!
Nichole Middleton says
So This recipe calls for 5.25 teaspoons of cinnamon, then it says to add 3/4 of the cinnamon to the apple mix, and then for the topping 1 teaspoon of cinnamon. So my question is exactly how much cinnamon do I add to the apple mix?? And this is for the recipe tripled.
The Chunky Chef says
The automatic ingredient calculator only does that for the ingredient list, not the manually typed in instructions, which is why it’s not changing for you when you tripled it. You’d have to do some old school math for that one, finding out what percentage of the original total cinnamon is added first. So take .75 / 1.75 and take that answer multiplied by 5.25 leaving you with 2.25. So add 2 1/4 tsp to the apple mix, and the remaining 2 3/4 tsp to the topping.
Angela says
Best Apple crisp!! The only thing I did differently was put in a 9×13 pan. Guess my apples were bigger
Sarai Hoolihan says
The best apple crisp recipe!! I made it exactly as the recipe stated and turned out perfect!
Brytanny says
Hi! We just harvested our apple trees. The apples are all varying sizes, so i wonder if you could tell me approximately how many cups of apples are equivalent to your 6 in your recipe? Im so excited to try this recipe, I LOVE apple crisps, and LOVE the crispy oat topping.
The Chunky Chef says
Approximately 6 1/2 – 7 1/2 cups 🙂
Kay says
Can I use coconut or almond flour? If so, what’s the adjustment? Thank you
The Chunky Chef says
I’ve not tested this recipe with either of those flours, so I can’t say for certain without further testing.
Laura says
My dad has celiac so I use a gluten free blend and I just sub it cup for cup. It’s always worked rest and no one can ever tell the difference. This is my favourite recipe and I bring it to every Thanksgiving dinner!!
Erin says
In my oven now and added Carmel sauce on top, my house smells like heaven!
Jaime says
My family had a trip to the apple orchard and came home with 18lbs of apples! I have no patience for a pie crust, so this was the perfect solution! So yummy. Thanks!
Abby says
This is the best apple crisp ever!! Adding it to my recipe box!!
Jamie Arkins says
Baked this recipe this evening. So glad I found it! The crumble topping for this recipe will now be my go to topping for all future fruit crisps and crumbles…delicious! The apple crisp all around is delicious. The fresh lemon juice gives the apple just a hint of tartness to balance out the sweet buttery topping. I will make this again!
Kelcey says
This is DELICIOUS!!! I made it *twice* in one week while my dad was visiting…and then a third time after he left 😂. Thanks for sharing!
Jordan says
What it I don’t have any lemon, lime juice? Or apple cider. What should I do?
The Chunky Chef says
Well there’s no lime juice or apple cider in this recipe, but if you don’t have lemon juice you could omit it.
Roxie says
My 4th time making. Even a gourmet chef complemented me
Nicole Hlavka says
Great recipe.
Nicole Hlavka says
I’ve made this twice now and it doesn’t last 12 hours in my house ! Definitely a favorite. I make my own caramel sauce to drizzle over the top after it comes out of the oven. I double the recipe (and a little more than double the amount of apples) and use a
9 x 11 glass pan. Perfect thickness.
Janet says
I have a couple of cans of apple pie filling could I use that
The Chunky Chef says
Honestly, I’ve never made it that way before, so I can’t say for certain if any baking times will need to be adjusted. I wouldn’t think it’d need to bake as long, since the apples are already softened in the pie filling, so maybe 30-40 minutes, just so the topping gets browned and cooked?
Sarah says
Help! My husband accidentally bought Granola instead of oats (we love him anyway). I’m worried if we use the granola it will most definitely burn in the oven. Should we just add it on top after? Im laughing so hard as I type this haha!
The Chunky Chef says
Lol this sounds like something my husband would do! I’d probably add it on top, or see if you can break it up small enough, then it could be worked in 🙂
Jim Humburg says
Your favorite granola makes an excellent replacement for the oats. We do that on apple crisp pie for a change from the regular recipe.
Louise says
This was the best I’ve made! Love that it is baked in a. 8×8 dish and made it good and thick. This will be the only one for me!😁
Sarah says
I love this recipe! It’s easy and delicious and so full of flavor!
Linda says
Looks delicious! I’m
Going to make it tomorrow. I’m wondering if it can be frozen
Linda
The Chunky Chef says
I haven’t frozen this recipe myself, but I know several other readers have done so successfully. I would assemble the crisp, then cover and freeze. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator, then bake as directed.
Emily says
I made this tonight. By far the best apple crisp I’ve had!! How incredibly delicious!
Charlene Martin says
Good recipe but I did add more oats to the typing because it didn’t look like there was enough. And it turned out perfectly. I also added more cinnamon and brown sugar because I love it lol