Apple Crisp with Oat Crumble Topping

Jump to Recipe: Apple Crisp with Oatmeal Crumb Topping

Apple crisp with oat crumble topping is a baked apple dessert: sliced apples tossed with cinnamon and sugar, buried under a mixture of rolled oats, brown sugar, flour and melted butter. It bakes in an 8×8 inch pan at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes, until the apples go tender and the topping turns golden and crisp. This version uses 4 Granny Smith apples and serves 6.

Fall has been pretty great here in Minnesota this year. Lots of crisp, sun-drenched afternoons where everything glows orange. It’s the kind of weather that made me want to whip up a little apple crisp with oat crumble topping.

So I did. And I don’t regret it.

I have made this crisp every fall since 2016, and it has never once come out of the oven and disappointed anybody. It’s what I bake when I want something warm on the table in about an hour and I don’t feel like wrestling with a pie crust. It’s also the pan that shows up at every church basement potluck and family dinner around here from late September straight through Thanksgiving.

Why This Apple Crisp Recipe Works

• One 8×8 pan, no pie crust, 20 minutes of prep.
• The topping uses melted butter instead of cold cubed butter, so there’s no cutting in and no pastry blender to wash.
• A little baking powder and baking soda in the crumble give it lift, so it bakes up craggy instead of dense.
• Granny Smith apples stay tart against a full cup of brown sugar and hold their shape instead of collapsing.
• It doubles cleanly into a 9×13 pan when you need to feed a crowd.

What You Need

For the Apple Layer

• 4 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and sliced
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

For the Oat Crumble Topping

• 1 cup uncooked old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup butter, melted

That single tablespoon of flour in the apple layer is doing real work. As the apples bake they let go of a lot of juice, and the flour thickens it into a cinnamon syrup instead of letting it run thin across the bottom of the pan.

The Best Apples for Apple Crisp

The best apples for apple crisp are firm, tart varieties that hold their shape when baked. Granny Smith is the standard and it’s what this recipe calls for. Honeycrisp, Haralson and Jonagold all work well too.

Both Honeycrisp and Haralson came out of the University of Minnesota apple breeding program, which is one of the genuinely great things about buying apples in this state in October. If you’re at an orchard, ask what they’ve got that bakes well and they will point you at the right bin.

Skip Red Delicious and McIntosh. They’re soft to begin with and they break down into applesauce under the topping. If you want more depth of flavor, use two varieties, one tart and one sweet.

One reader made this with five small homegrown red apples that weren’t tart at all and reported back that it still turned out great, so you have some room to work with here.

How to Make Apple Crisp with Oat Crumble Topping

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Peel, core and slice the apples and spread them in an 8×8 inch pan. I like glass, but a metal cake pan works fine.
3. Stir the white sugar, 1 tablespoon of flour and the cinnamon together in a small bowl, then sprinkle it over the apples.
4. In a larger bowl, combine the oats, 1 cup flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda and melted butter. Stir until it looks like wet, clumpy sand.
5. Spread the topping over the apples in an even layer.
6. Bake for about 45 minutes, until the topping is golden brown and the juices are bubbling up around the edges.
7. Let it sit 10 to 15 minutes before you serve it.

Do You Have to Peel the Apples?

No, you don’t have to peel the apples, but I do. Peeled apples give you a softer, more uniform filling that reads as dessert rather than baked fruit.

If you leave the skins on, slice the apples thin and expect a chewier, more rustic result. You’ll save yourself a solid ten minutes, which is not nothing.

Honestly, peeling is the hardest part of this whole recipe, and it isn’t even that hard. I just use a paring knife. It’s a little futzy, but it works.

Can You Use Quick Oats or Instant Oats?

Use old-fashioned rolled oats if you have them. Quick oats will work in a pinch, but skip the instant oatmeal packets entirely.

Rolled oats are big enough to keep their structure through 45 minutes in the oven, so you can still see them in the finished topping and they give you that crunch. Quick oats are cut smaller and rolled thinner, so they soften into the flour and the topping comes out more bready than crisp.

Instant oatmeal packets are a different thing altogether. They’re pre-cooked, usually sweetened, and they turn to paste. Not worth it.

How to Get a Crumble Topping That Actually Gets Crispy

A soggy topping is almost always a moisture and airflow problem, not a baking time problem. Five things that fix it:

• Don’t pack the topping down. Sprinkle it on loosely so air can move through it.
• Pinch some of the mixture into small clumps before you scatter it. Craggy pieces crisp better than a smooth, flat layer.
• Bake uncovered the entire time. No foil at the start.
• If the topping browns before the apples are tender, tent it loosely with foil for the last 10 minutes.
• Let it rest 10 to 15 minutes out of the oven. The topping firms up as it cools, and cutting into it straight away lets steam back up into the crumble.

Apple Crisp vs. Apple Crumble: What Is the Difference?

The difference is the oats. An apple crisp has rolled oats in the topping, which bake into a crunchy, granola-like layer. An apple crumble has a topping of just flour, sugar and butter, which bakes up softer and sandier, closer to a shortbread.

In practice the two names get used interchangeably, and in the UK nearly everything gets called a crumble. By the oat definition, this recipe is a crisp, even though it has lived on this site under the name crumb topping since 2016.

How to Make Apple Crisp Ahead and Store It

You can mix the oat crumble topping up to 3 days ahead and keep it covered in the refrigerator. Slice the apples the day you bake, or toss them with a little lemon juice so they don’t brown on you.

Baked apple crisp keeps covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. To bring the topping back, reheat it uncovered at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes. The microwave works and takes 60 seconds, but the topping comes out soft.

To freeze, bake it, cool it completely, wrap the pan well and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and reheat at 350 for about 20 minutes.

What to Serve with Apple Crisp

Vanilla ice cream, while the crisp is still warm enough to melt it. If you can find cinnamon ice cream, I HIGHLY recommend using that. My grocery store didn’t have any the day I made this, so I went with vanilla instead, which is also crazy tasty with this apple crisp, so it’s not like I’m missing out.

Whipped cream works. A drizzle of caramel works. And cold apple crisp with a cup of coffee the next morning is a completely legitimate breakfast in my house, right alongside the overnight French toast bake.

If you’re putting together a whole fall spread, set out a bowl of pumpkin spice trail mix while the crisp is in the oven. And for another dessert that comes together in one pan with no crust involved, there’s the jello poke cake.

Apple Crisp with Oat Crumble Topping FAQ

Can you use instant oats in apple crisp?

Quick oats will work, but instant oatmeal packets will not. Quick oats are cut finer and soften more, so the topping turns out softer and more bready. Instant packets are pre-cooked and usually sweetened, and they turn into paste in the oven. Old-fashioned rolled oats give you the best crunch.

Is this apple crisp very sweet? Can I reduce the sugar?

It is on the sweeter side as written, with 1/2 cup white sugar in the apples and 1 cup brown sugar in the topping. A reader who made it with sweet rather than tart apples suggested cutting the sugar, and that’s fair. You can drop the white sugar in the apple layer to 1/4 cup without hurting the texture. Keep the brown sugar in the topping where it is, because it’s part of what makes the crumble crisp up.

What size pan do I need, and can I double the recipe?

An 8×8 inch pan, glass or metal, for 6 servings. To double it, use a 9×13 inch pan and bake for 55 to 60 minutes at 350 degrees.

Why is my apple crisp watery?

Apples release a lot of juice as they bake, and if there’s nothing to thicken it you end up with liquid in the bottom of the pan. The tablespoon of flour tossed with the sugar and cinnamon handles this. If your apples are especially juicy, add a second tablespoon. Letting the crisp rest 10 to 15 minutes after baking also gives the juices time to set up.

Do you serve apple crisp warm or cold?

Warm, about 15 minutes out of the oven, so the topping is still crisp and the ice cream melts into it. Leftovers are good cold straight from the refrigerator, and better reheated at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes.

Can I use this oat crumble topping on other fruit?

Yes. The same topping works over sliced peaches, mixed berries, rhubarb or pears. Berries and rhubarb give off more liquid than apples, so bump the flour in the fruit layer up to 2 tablespoons.

Apple Crisp with Oat Crumble Topping Recipe

5 from 1 vote

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Apple Crisp With Oatmeal Crumb Topping

Prep Time

20 mins

Cook Time

45 mins

Total Time

1 hr 5 mins

 

Servings: 6 servings

Author: Jen

Ingredients

• 4 granny smith apples peeled, cored and sliced
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup uncooked oats
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup butter melted

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Place the sliced apples in an 8x8 inch pan.
3. In a small bowl, mix together the white sugar, 1 tablespoon flour and cinnamon. Sprinkle this mixture on top of the apples.
4. In a large bowl, combine the oats, 1 cup flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda and melted butter. Stir until well incorporated and spread over the apples.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes.
6. Serve warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.