What's the difference between a crisp and a crumble? A crumble topping includes oats; a crisp doesn't have oats. That's it.
So it's easy to make a crumble a crisp and vice versa. It all comes down to the oats.
Oats pair well with the fruit of autumn. Don't hesitate to make your pears, plums, apples and figs less healthy but more delicious with this is easy crisp topping.
Apple Crisps
Text and Photo by Jac Kyles Baker
Makes 4 crisps
Ingredients
For the apple filling:
2 medium apples (I used Honeycrisp), sliced
1/4 cup sugar
For the crumb topping:
4 TB unsalted butter, softened
2 TB packed brown sugar
2 TB packed dark brown sugar
3 TB granulated sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup oats
Stir flour, oats and cinnamon together in a bowl.
In a separate bowl, whisk butter, sugars and salt until smooth. Stir mixture to flour. Press dough into small clumps with fingers.
Place crumb topping in refrigerator or freezer to set (minimum 15 minutes). The butter in a freshly made crisp topping will melt and from a crust instead of a crisp.
Place sliced apples in a medium microwave safe bowl.* Microwave on HIGH for 1 minute.
Drain liquid. Stir in sugar. Microwave on HIGH 45 seconds.
Drain (or not) excess liquid. Set aside to cool.
Lightly butter or oil 4 microwave safe glass cups or ramekins.
Divide apple filling into cups/ramekins. Cover apple filling with crisp topping.
Place crisps around the edges of the microwave turntable*, leaving the center empty. Microwave on HIGH 1 minute and 30 seconds. Check progress half way through cooking time.
Cool crisps on a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Store in an airtight container. Keep refrigerated.
Cook's Notes
*I explain why I cook fresh fruit before topping it with any type of crust in the Blueberry Crumbles recipe.
**If your microwave doesn't have a turntable, then stop halfway during cooking time and rearrange crisps to the opposite position.