A Cozy Comforting Crisp

I love apple crisp. Always have. We started eating this one as breakfast for Thanksgiving morning several years ago. It’s great for breakfast, but obviously is also yummy for a dessert. This is a triple make ahead breakfast: You can make it the night before; you can make the topping and keep it in the freezer; or you can assemble the crisp and freeze it to bake later. If you ever had the apple walnut crunch dessert at Rafferty’s, this will remind you of that.

Make Ahead Apple Crisp Topping–makes approximately 10 cups

6 packets instant oatmeal–original

2 cups old fashioned oats

15.25 oz yellow cake mix

2 tbsp cinnamon

3 cups chopped pecans

Stir all the ingredients together and store in a gallon sized freezer bag in the freezer.

Apple crisp filling

8 cups peeled and diced apples (Gala apples are a good all-purpose apple, and what I usually use. If you prefer a tarter apple, Granny Smith apples are a good choice.)

3 tbsp Minute Tapioca (I prefer minute tapioca to other thickening agents for all fruit desserts.)

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

Combine ingredients and let them sit for 15 minutes in the bowl.

After the 15 minutes is over, pour the mixture into a 13 x 9″ casserole dish that has been sprayed with cooking spray.

Take 5 cups of the topping mix and add 3/4 cup of melted butter. Stir well to combine.

Top the apple mixture evenly with the topping and bake at 350 degrees for 45 to 50 minutes.

You can use other fruits for this recipe. Strawberry-rhubarb is one of my favorites, or peaches. Use the filling recipes on the back of the minute tapioca box. Add a couple cups of fruit to the recipe, and increase tapioca by 50%, and leave the sugar the same.

If you want to freeze this, add Fruit Fresh to your fruit mixture per the package instructions to keep the fruit from turning brown. Assemble the crisp according to the rest of the directions. Cover with aluminum foil or the casserole lid. Freeze for up to 2 to 3 months. To bake, cover frozen crisp with aluminum foil loosely and bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Remove foil and bake until the topping is brown and the filling is thick and bubbling around the edges, another 30 to 45 minutes.

If you want to make a HUGE crisp, double the fruit recipe and put in large rectangular foil roasting pan and top with all the topping mix combined with 1 1/2 cups of melted butter. Top the filling evenly and bake for 60 to 75 minutes at 350 degrees.