Sooo Many Apples Mean It’s Time For Apple Crumble

The BEST dessert because it’s easy! 🍏🍎

Think lots of warm fruit. Think delicious topping. Add a little ice cream on the side. What do you call it?

A crisp? A cobbler? A crumble? A buckle? So many names …

Instead of asking Google, I thought I’d see what ChatGPT thinks.

The main difference between a crisp, crumble, cobbler, and buckle lies in the topping and how the fruit and batter are combined:

Crisp: A crisp is a baked fruit dessert topped with a mixture of flour, sugar, butter, and oats. The topping becomes crispy and crunchy as it bakes, hence the name. The oats in the topping are what distinguish a crisp from a crumble.

Crumble: Similar to a crisp, a crumble is a baked fruit dessert with a topping made from flour, sugar, and butter, but without oats. The topping is more cake-like and crumbly rather than crispy.

Cobbler: A cobbler features fruit on the bottom, with a biscuit or cake-like topping that is dropped in spoonfuls over the fruit. As it bakes, the batter puffs up and gives the dessert a cobbled, uneven appearance, which is where it gets its name.

Buckle: A buckle is more like a fruit-studded coffee cake. The batter is mixed with the fruit, and as it bakes, the cake "buckles" around the fruit, creating a dense, moist dessert. Buckles often have a streusel topping.

Pretty good answer, I think.

I guess that makes me a crisp kinda girl. I love a crunchy topping. I love adding oats for consistency. I love to mix it up by adding seeds and coconut on occasion.

Yet no matter what you put on top, it starts with the apples …

Mmm, I love apples. It’s been my go-to fruit since I was a girl. Of course, grocery store apples have a way of ruining you. They rarely have flavor. In many cases, they’re just meh.

But, oh, the farmer’s markets bring in crops that are fantastic. Especially here in the Pacific Northwest, apple central where around 74 percent of the fresh US apple crop comes from.

I anxiously await for a little apple farm to set up shop at my local market sometime in September. When she’s there, it’s celebration time! I load up on my favorite apples, the Pink Pearls. They have a mild greenish-yellow outside with bright pink flesh on the inside. And a tartness made for adult eating.

And baking. I’ve already made an apple pie from a few last weekend. And this week, it was crumble time. They’re easy to put together on a weeknight, and perfect for enjoying as the warm days turn into cool nights.

Apple Crumble

• 5 -7 apples, depending on size (Pink Pearls, Granny Smith, Pink Lady)

• 1 small lemon, zest and juice

• 2 tablespoons sugar

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

• ½ teaspoon nutmeg

• 2 tablespoons flour

• Pinch of sea salt

Topping

• 1 cup whole wheat flour

• ⅔ cup oats

• ⅔ cup pecans, chopped

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

• ¼ cup sugar

• ¼ cup honey

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

• 6 tablespoons coconut oil + 1 tablespoon

Lightly grease a baking dish with 1 tablespoon coconut oil. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Peel and core apples and cut into bite-sized pieces. In a large bowl, mix zest, juice, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, flour, and salt. Add apples and toss to coat. Transfer to baking dish.

In the same bowl, combine topping ingredients. Work the coconut oil into the ingredients until it resembles sand. Spread the topping onto the apples, gently pressing into place.

Bake 25 to 30 minutes, or until top is lightly browned.

Let cool for at least 15 minutes.

Enjoy!

Note: You can get creative with your crisp by adding other ingredients! Make your crumble something you LOVE to eat. Consider adding:

• ¼ cup chopped crystallized ginger (LOVE this)

• ½ cup chopped walnuts

• 1 cup flaked unsweetened coconut (LOVE this too 🥰)

• ½ cup sunflower seeds

• ½ cup chopped hazelnuts

• ½ cup chopped pistachios

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