Our 10 Best Apple Crisp Recipes of All Time (2024)

FAQs

Why do you put lemon juice over the apples when making an apple crisp? ›

Add a little extra fresh lemon juice to help prevent the apples from turning super brown. Prepare the entire apple crisp, cover well, and refrigerate the night before baking. Don't wait any longer than overnight before baking, to prevent the apples from browning too much or drying out/spoiling.

What Makes A Good Apple For Apple Crisp? The best apples for baking keep their structure under heat, which prevents the chunks of fruit from turning into mush after baking. The firm and crisp Granny Smith and Honeycrisp varieties are popular apples to use in apple pies and apple crisps.

Like an apple crisp, an apple crumble is a baked fruit dessert with a layer of topping. But unlike the crisp, the crumble topping rarely includes oats or nuts. Instead, a crumble's topping is more like streusel, made with flour, sugar and butter.

In a large bowl, toss together apples, granulated sugar, 2 tablespoons flour, lemon juice, cinnamon, and 1/4 teaspoon salt; transfer to prepared dish. In a bowl with an electric mixer, beat butter with brown sugar until fluffy. Mix in 1 cup flour and 1/2 teaspoon salt until large pieces form. Scatter over filling.

Lemon juice and vanilla extract – both of these are for complexity of flavor in your apple filling. You could leave them out if you don't have them, but they make a noticeable difference in the final product. Cornstarch or arrowroot starch – this is how we get a thick and not watery apple crisp!

The main reason your crumble topping isn't crunchy is probably because you haven't used Demerara sugar. Although, it could also be that you've got your topping ingredient quantities wrong: either too much or not enough flour and butter alongside the sugar.

Thicker skinned and harder apples tend to keep longer; 'Arkansas Black', 'Stayman Winesap', 'Rome', 'Fuji' or 'Pink Lady' can last five months or more when conditions are right. Softer skinned varieties like 'Gala' and 'Golden Delicious' may only last a few weeks even in the best environment.

Some apples are naturally crisp and firm when bitten into, while others have a softer or mealy texture. For example, varieties like Honeycrisp and Fuji are known for their crispness, while Red Delicious may have a softer texture.

Fuji: Fuji is the sweetest apple variety that Stemilt grows. Each crisp bite will remind you of the sweet taste of apple juice due to its naturally high sugar levels! Fuji apples are ideal for fresh applications like snacking, juicing, or freezing.

How do you know when an apple crisp is done? ›

Bake the apple crisp until the fruit is bubbling and the topping is golden brown and crisp, about 45 minutes. Serve the crisps warm with vanilla bean ice cream or fresh whipped cream, if desired.

This has led some historians to believe that Betty was the name of the cook and creator of the recipe and that brown was in reference to her skin color.

When you cook apples, the pectin in them breaks down, making the apples watery. The lower pH value of tart apples reduces the amount of pectin that breaks down, so the apples hold their shape and get less mushy.

Both are very similar apple desserts, but the difference mainly comes down to the crumble topping: Instead of the flour and oat mixture used in an apple crisp, an apple brown betty uses breadcrumbs for its crumbly, delicious topping.

Lemon juice is a natural dough enhancer, creating more elasticity to the dough which in return makes it easier for the bread to stretch and rise. If baking with ROGERS No Additive ALL Purpose flours, using lemon juice is helpful.

The browning can be slowed down by preventing the enzyme from working properly. Lemon juice contains an acid which can stop enzymes working properly as enzymes often work best at a certain pH. Water and sugar, in jam for example, stops oxygen in the air getting to the enzymes and prevents the browning.

The lemon water also subtly altered the apple flavor with a distinct citrusy quality. I later did a series of tests with much lower concentrations of citric acid (one teaspoon per quart of water), which I found more palatable, but they didn't work nearly as well at preventing browning.