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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Andrew says
Yummy!
Lana Justice says
I really like this recipe
Leticia Titus says
It is in the oven, I can’t wait for it to be ready!
Thank you Amanda for sharing this recipe!
Kim says
Was so good! I got raves about it!
Susan says
Our family loves this apple crisp! I’ve made it several times. I used Gala apples in this recipe.
Kathleen Sutherland says
Great recipe. I used about 1/3 less brown sugar and butter for a lighter version – still delicious!
Leona Charfauros says
I love the options to leave the skins on. It was easy preparing fir baking.
Cinnamon favorites!
Amelia says
The best I’ve ever made. No skimping on topping here!
Joanne says
Excellent!
Julie says
Thank you Amanda! This recipe is amazing:) I love that you make something so delicious so quick and easy. Recipe exactly as written is a slam dunk crowd pleaser. A 10! Love using the brown sugar. I use Granny Smith. Sometimes I reduce the brown sugar, flour and oats to 1/2 cup and decrease the butter a bit to make a lighter version since I tend to eat so much of it-LOL! I personally like this better than apple pie since I’m not a crust person and crisp is way quicker to make than pie, and healthier. I’d give this recipe a million stars if I could!! God bless and thanks!
Katie Johnson says
Made tonight. Used a variety of apples we had on hand. Pink lady/Fuji. I didn’t make any alterations followed recipe as is. It’s a little “juicy” but I saw the added note of adding flour to the mix after it was in the oven. Still pretty awesome.
Cheryl says
I made this for my elderly parents , they loved it we ate it in 3 days.
Jeanie Youtsey says
I’ve made this twice now, and both times it was delicious. I have been backing mine about 55 minutes.
Randall wagler says
Love this recipe. Very simple to make. I have also put cherry pie filling in it also.
Kelley says
Love, love, LOVE this recipe! I make it all the time, especially since I am breastfeeding mum. Oatmeal is sooo great for milk production and it works out because my family also loves this apple crisp too! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe.
P.S. I substitute butter for a plant based margarine – Earth Balance and I usually have to add more flour and oatmeal to account for this substitution. I am not one for ‘exact measurements’ so when I make this I simply go by texture and feel. This recipe is perfect for that too. I have also substituted for regular margarine in the past too and my family loves it just the same you cannot even tell the difference! It’s perfect 🙂 Thanks again!
Maureen says
Best apple crisp I’ve ever had. Ever. Seriously. Even my spouse who’s a tough food critic said “omg this is sooooooooooo good!”
Steve says
Its in the oven….cant wait!! Thanks for the recipe!
Isabel says
Delicious. My 8 yr old grandson couldn’t stop raving about it!
Mary Ellen cann says
I made this today… found that it was too much juice? Perhaps the apples I used.?
They were honey crisps apples.
Topping was crispy but ended up pouring off all the
Juice…. and added flour and butter and made a sauce with it..
Felt like I should of added flour with the sugar and cinnamon to the apples before adding the top… Did I miss that?
The Chunky Chef says
Yes, honeycrisp apples give off a bit more liquid than the ones I mention that I use for this recipe. You can certainly make it with honeycrisp in the future, but I would add a bit of flour to the apple mixture to account for their extra juices 🙂
Robert says
I don’t understand how this crust recipe could possibly work. No matter how hard I try, I can’t get it to look like the photos. I always just end up with an inedible pile of sugar-sand on top.
I eventually tried greatly reducing the sugar and greatly increasing the butter, which makes it work a lot better, but it’s still not ideal, and tends to be sandy around the edges. I wonder if using melted butter rather than cutting up the butter into tiny chunks would work better, since that ensures it will be evenly distributed.
The Chunky Chef says
You could try grating your cold butter, which means it would be less work to cut it in. Or you can try using melted butter. Just know that melted butter toppings tend to be a little more chewy and less crisp.
Dharini Trivedi says
My roommates loved it!! I added some apple pie spice. Perfect amount of apple to crunch ratio.