Apple Crisp With Ambrosia Apples | The Nibble Webzine Of Food Adventures

RECIPE: Apple Crisp With Ambrosia Apples

November 3, 2015 at 8:42 am · Filed under Desserts, Fruits, Nuts & Seeds, Recipes

Contributing Editor Rowann Gilman returned from picking Ambrosia apples in Washington’s Wenatchee Valley, glowing over the food and restaurants there. If you didn’t catch her report on the apples, here it is.

She brought back an apple crisp recipe that she can’t wait to have again. Since fall is prime apple crisp season, it arrives just in time.

If you don’t know the difference between a crisp and a cobbler, crumble, betty and other kin, THE NIBBLE has spelled it out below.

RECIPE: OLD-FASHIONED APPLE CRISP

Try this old-fashioned recipe with new-fashioned Ambrosia apples. It’s from Chef David Toal of Ravenous Catering in Cashmere, Washington.

Ingredients For 6 to 8 Servings

For The Crumb Topping

1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats (do not use quick cooking oats)

1 cup flour

1 cup dark brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon cinnamon

Pinch of salt

2/3 cup butter, cut into small chunks

For The Ambrosia Apple Filling

6 to 8 large Ambrosia apples, peeled and thinly sliced

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Zest from one lemon

¼ cup flour

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ cup dark brown sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Pinch of salt

Plus

Vanilla ice cream

TOP PHOTO: A crisp is has a crumb or streusel topping. The crumbs can be breadcrumbs, breakfast cereal, cookie or graham cracker crumbs, flour or nuts. Photo courtesy Ambrosia Apples. BOTTOM PHOTO: Ambrosia Apples. Photo by Rowann Gilman | THE NIBBLE.

Preparation

1. PREHEAT the oven to 375°F. Butter a 13×9-inch baking dish or 6 to 8 individual ramekins and set aside.

2. COMBINE the oats, flour, brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a medium bowl; toss well to combine. Using a pastry blender or fork, cut the butter into the dry ingredients.

3. STIR together all of the filling ingredients in a medium bowl. Mix thoroughly to combine. Transfer the filling to the prepared baking dish or ramekins. Top the filling with the crumb topping.

4. BAKE for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and bubbly around the edges. Let cool for 15 minutes before serving.

5. SERVE with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and drizzle some of the juice from the baking dish over top.

TOP PHOTO: In our book, it isn’t apple crisp
if it isn’t topped with vanilla ice cream. Photo
courtesy TheMeaningOfPie.com. BOTTOM
PHOTO: A cobbler has a dropped dough
topping that bakes up to resemble
cobblestones (hence, the name). Photo
courtesy Melissas.com.

PAN-BAKED FRUIT DISHES

Most people use these terms interchangeably. Even Produce Pete called a crisp a cobbler in last week’s episode on NBC. If you really care about food, you’ll care about knowing the differences among pan-baked fruit dishes.

BETTY, or brown betty, alternates layers of fruit with layers of buttered bread crumbs. Some modern recipes use graham cracker crumbs.

BIRD’S NEST PUDDING is a bit different: A pan of fruit is covered with a batter that bakes into an uneven top with the fruit poking through. It’s served in a bowl topped with heavy cream and spices.

BUCKLE, very similar to the French clafoutis (often spelled clafouti in the U.S.), adds fruit, usually berries, to a single layer of batter. When baked, it becomes a cake-like layer studded with berries. It is topped with a crumb layer (streusel), which gives it a buckled appearance. Alternatively, the cake, fruit and crumbs can be made as three separate layers.

COBBLER has a pastry top instead of a crumb top. Biscuit pastry is dropped from a spoon, the result resembling cobblestones.

CRISP is a deep-dish baked fruit dessert made with a crumb or streusel topping. The crumbs can be made with bread crumbs, breakfast cereal, cookie or graham cracker crumbs, flour or nuts.

CROW’S NEST PUDDING is another term for bird’s nest pudding. In some recipes, the fruit is cored, the hole filled with sugar, and the fruit wrapped in pastry.

CRUMBLE is the British term for crisp.

GRUNT is a spoon pie with biscuit dough on top of stewed fruit. Stewed fruit is steamed on top of the stove, not baked in the oven. The recipe was initially an attempt to adapt the English steamed pudding to the primitive cooking equipment available in the Colonies. The term “grunt” was used in Massachusetts, while other New England states called the dish a slump.

PANDOWDY or pan dowdy is a spoon pie made with brown sugar or molasses. It has a rolled top biscuit crust that is broken up during baking and pushed down into the fruit to allow the juices to seep up. It is believed that the name refers to its “dowdy” appearance. Sometimes it is made “upside down” with the crust on the bottom, and inverted prior to serving.

SLUMP is another word for grunt.

SONKER or ZONKER, a North Carolina term for a deep-dish cobbler made of fruit or sweet potato.

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