Our simple Apple Crisp Recipe is a timeless dessert brimming with freshly sliced apples and crowned with a crispy, buttery, cinnamon oat topping. It’s just as tempting as our Apple Pie, but incredibly easy and quick to prepare. Enhance the experience by serving it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream to savor the best apple crisp recipe.
Easy Apple Crisp Recipe
We’re passionate about all things Autumn, which means our love for apple recipes knows no bounds. From Apple Fritter Rings to Apple Turnovers and Apple Cake, sweetened with luscious apple slices, we just can’t get enough! If you share our enthusiasm for apple season, this recipe is a must-try.
Every year, we embark on an apple-picking adventure in my parents’ yard, where four apple trees yield a bountiful harvest. We embrace the season by getting creative with these apples, and this recipe becomes a Fall staple for us because it calls for a generous amount of apples. Here’s why it’s our go-to dessert:
- Quick and easy to make, especially if you use an apple peeler
- Family-approved – watch their eyes light up when you add vanilla ice cream.
- Make-ahead – keeps well and reheats beautifully
- Scales up or down to fit your gathering and perfect for the holidays
Apple Crisp Ingredients
Apple Crisp is all about the experience—the aroma of Fall spices, the crisp topping, and the warm, gooey filling. Here are the simple ingredients that make this incredible dessert:
- Apples – we used golden delicious apples, but any crisp apple would work well (see list of options below)
- Lemon juice – keeps the apples from browning and adds flavor and acidity to balance out the sweetness
- Sugar – adjust to taste depending on how tart your apples are
- Flour – helps to thicken the filling. You can substitute with cornstarch for a gluten-free apple crisp.
- Cinnamon – our favorite complimentary spice for apple recipes
Apple Crisp Topping Ingredients
- Flour – bonds the crumb together, feel free to use your favorite gluten-free flour
- Oats – use old-fashioned oats to make the crisp topping, make sure to buy gluten-free, if needed
- Sugar – we combine brown sugar and granulated sugar for a sweet caramel-like filling
- Cinnamon – complements the apple filling
- Salt – balances the sweetness
- Butter – use unsalted, softened butter.
Substitutions
This recipe is versatile, and here are some creative variations to consider:
- Nuts – add chopped nuts to your streusel topping
- Caramel Sauce drizzled over the top just before serving
- Cranberries – substitute 1 1/2 cups of apples for fresh or dried cranberries and add more sugar if using fresh cranberries
- Spices – add a pinch of cloves, nutmeg, or even candied ginger
Which Apples are Best for Apple Crisp?
Select firm and crisp apples to ensure they won’t become mushy in the oven. Apples vary in sweetness, so adjust the sugar accordingly. For this recipe, we used Golden Delicious apples with 3/4 cup of sugar, but if you opt for Granny Smith Apples, increase the sugar to 1 cup or adjust to taste.
You can mix different apple varieties for a unique flavor. Here are our preferred apples for baking:
- Golden Delicious
- Granny Smith
- Fuji
- Honeycrisp
- Jonagold
- Braeburn
- Pink Lady
How to Make Apple Crisp
Slice, mix, dump, bake—see how easy it is to make this classic recipe:
- Prep – Butter a 9×13 casserole dish, preheat oven to 375˚F.
- Cut Apples – peel, core, and slice apples into 1/4″-thick pieces (an apple peeler makes it easy), then transfer to a bowl, and toss with 2 Tbsp lemon juice.
- Coat Apples – in a bowl, combine flour, sugar, and cinnamon then sprinkle over apples and stir to coat. Transfer to buttered casserole dish.
- Topping – In a mixing bowl, combine flour, oats, both sugars, cinnamon, and salt. Add diced softened butter and use your hands to stir in the butter until pea-sized crumbs form throughout. Then, spread the topping evenly over your apples.
- Bake – place on the center rack in the oven and bake uncovered for 45-50 minutes until bubbling at the edges. If the top is browning too quickly, loosely cover the dish with aluminum foil until the apples are bubbling.
Pro Tip
If you want to keep your hands clean, you can mix the topping in a stand mixer with a paddle attachment until pea-sized crumbs form. Be sure not to overmix, because you want the topping to be crumbly, not dough-like.
