Recipes By Request - Apple Crisp

Here in the northeast U.S., serving a hot dessert for sukkot is always a big hit. By the time dessert comes to the table, the warm food from the main course has long since cooled off, but noses, fingers and toes are starting to get really chilly. My mother always served a blueberry apple crisp. It was a once a year treat, and if I sit still and think about it, I can see, smell and taste all of it's sweet tart deliciousness. With or without a counterpoint to the apples, an apple crisp is always welcomed at the end of a sukkot dinner. The topping for the fruit crisp can be made ahead of time and refrigerated for a few days, or even frozen for several months. Once you're going to the effort of putting together the topping, it's worth making a double or triple batch, and freezing containers of it. Then, whenever you have a craving for a crisp, by the time you've cut the apples, a container of topping will have had sufficient time to defrost, to be crumbled on top of the fruit and baked.

I've never been a fan of sticky sweet fruit, so I just cut fruit, put into a lightly greased pan and crumble the topping over. The grease for the pan is really to simplify cleanup, so if you're using a disposable pan that will be tossed, it's not even worth the bit of oil.

Apple Crisp

6 large apples, peeled and sliced into 1/2 inch wedges - don't make the slices too thin or they'll turn into mush

Topping:

1 cup flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 stick margarine (or butter)

Mix flour, sugar and cinnamon well. Cut in margarine with pastry blender until well mixed. Crumble over fruit. Bake at 375 degrees about 45 minutes.