Apple or Pear Crisp Recipe (2024)

This has been my go-to dessert recipe for years. Simple and delicious. I use version in Mark B's How to Cook Everything. It calls for 2/3 brown (not white) sugar, 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 cup rolled oats. Have never tried with nuts. The recipe is very accommodating. Memorize a ratio of roughly 1:1:1 dry ingreds. per 6 cups fruit, and you are set. I've also made it with other fruits and fruit combos, even undefrosted frozen fruits. If you use watery fruits, toss them with a little cornstarch or flour.

A few things to change --- 1. Add salt into the crust. Salt is a necessary ingredient in baked goods to amp up the other flavors. 2. This recipe does not provide enough crust to cover even an 8x8" pan of crisp. I doubled the oats and pecans, and added 3 tablespoons of flour, salt, more cinnamon and a sprinkle of nutmeg, and only 1 more tablespoon of butter. That made enough crisp topping for an 8x8" crisp.

I love apple crisp, but it's leaps and bounds more interesting made with brown rather than white sugar.

good. I added a little fresh lemon juice & fresh ginger.

I make this mixed with whole cranberries & have for years! My family looks forward to Cranberry/Apple Crisp as one of my side dishes every Thanksgiving. Makes a great breakfast the next morning, as well!

I used 1 full tsp of cinnamon divided and brown sugar. I would suggest that there be a "how to" guide for people who don't have a food processor to explain the manual techniques needed to get the same results. Sometimes it's obvious but sometimes not so. I know how to cut butter in to the topping but I bet there are many new cooks who don't. This is such a great teaching site for all cooks that I think it would enhance its usefulness.

Have made this and similar crisps for years. Prepare the fruit portion and put it in the oven while preparing the topping. The fruit benefits from longer cooking than the topping needs.

Won't exactly put pies out of business (topping isn't a crust...), but a solid quick option for using new crop of apples, etc. Added a handful of golden raisins; also found that it needed 50-55 mins at 375 to soften fruit properly.

Yummy and easy. I found that I needed to bake the crisp 60 minutes total.

Delicious; I did find it needed about 50 minutes to brown; I guess it depends on the apples you use. I loved the crumble topping without flour, using just oats and nuts; I always find the flour gets a little soggy. Also added a wee spritz of lemon juice and about 2 tsp of boiled cider to the apples. Great warm for dessert, room temperature for breakfast.

Used crushed gingersnaps instead of oatmeal. Was a great success.

This is a very good crumble with a pleasing flavor and ease of preparation that belie its taste. At first, I wondered if the absence of flour would result in s soupy consistency; it did not. I will use brown sugar next time because I like the deeper flavor of that ingredient, but refined sugar did not detract. I'll always return to this recipe.

I made it with Splenda (sorry, Mr. Bittman!) & it was delicious. So simple & good.

Delicious. Used 5 Granny Smith apples, salted butter because I had some on hand and per others' suggestion, also some lemon juice on the apples. Pecans make a delicious crunch more so than walnuts. A real treat.

I was out of cinnamon so I used garam masala instead. So delicious and easy!

Cook fruit while making the topping, it benefits from some extra time in oven. Will take hour to cook at 400.

Cook fruit a bit first while making topping, it needs longer. Should tale almost 60 min at 400 degrees.

I used brown sugar and baked at 400 degrees, as per Bittman’s version in How to Cook Everything. Delicious.

Love this recipe - so easy! I only use about 1/3 cup (brown) sugar in the topping so I feel better about eating it for breakfast. I double the cinnamon in the filling and crust and add half a teaspoon of nutmeg to both as well.

Cook fruit as topping gets prepped

I took someone ‘s advice and added a pinch of salt and now that’s all I can taste. Don’t add salt. Otherwise it’s perfection AS IS!!!

I toasted my pecans first. Did all else the same. Perfect! Loved the crunch and I had a variety of great apples.

This topping doesn’t come close to covering the apples. Advise what others have mentioned, and double the topping. After 50 minutes, my apples were still raw.

So tasty and easy. I made a few small changes1 c of oats I toasted the walnuts first2tsp of cinnamon (1 w apples and 1 with oats etc)Subbed brown sugar for white sugar I added a pinch of salt with the dry ingredients. A wonderful autumn dessert on the first chilly evening of the year.

Add about a quarter cup of coconut flakes to the topping.

Maybe add flour?

The apples need to be mixed with cornstarch or it gets too watery.

I ended up with a juicy crisp and still firm apples. I miss a little flour to thicken the juice.

Easy but bland and uninspiring. Made the Ko recipe last fall which takes a bit more effort but is superior in my opinion.

I increased the amount of crisp topping. Also, pulsed about a 1/2 cup of the oats into a coarse oat flour, then added that to the topping mixture. Along with adding tapioca starch, vanilla extract, and orange zest to the apple mixture. These additions made it the best apple crisp I’ve ever made. Yum!