Kids in the Kitchen Apple crisp warms the kitchen and the heart

by b O nn I e a M br OSI PHOTOS by e MMa a M br OSI

This recipe comes to you, dear readers, from my beloved, bespattered Betty Crocker’s New Boys and Girls Cookbook, copyright 1965. It was purchased for me by my mother at my first school book fair in 1968. I was in second grade.

I pored over the pages of this cookbook! I loved the illustrations, including the pencil drawings of the 25 boys and girls who were the testhelpers. They had names like Lucy and Peter, Vickie and David, and they offered helpful comments such as: “It’s important to measure exactly. When we didn’t, we had trouble.” “We learned to be careful when we took hot pans out of the oven.” “It’s important to read all the way through the recipe before you start to cook.” How about this one: “If I were a Mama, I’d cook all day.”

Apple Crisp

6 servings

4 cups apple slices (peeled or partially-peeled)

½ teaspoon cinnamon

¼ cup water

⅓ cup (5 tablespoons) softened Earth Balance Buttery

Spread or organic butter

¾ cup brown sugar

¾ cup flour (I use whole wheat pastry flour or whole spelt flour)

½ teaspoon salt

The first recipe my mother and I made from that cookbook was Apple Crisp. I know this because below the recipe, written in pencil in my childish hand, is “1st 4-23-68.” Sigh. What a long time ago.

Since then, I’ve made countless pans of apple crisp. It is the dessert my two daughters most frequently request. It’s sweet enough to be a treat, wholesome enough that I feel fine about serving it often, and simple enough that I can have it ready pretty quickly. And on a cold, blustery day, it’s lovely to warm up the kitchen with a hot oven and the smell of baking apples and cinnamon.

There are many versions of apple crisp, but this is the one we like best. It is mildly cinnamon-y and the sweet and crunchy topping doesn’t overwhelm the apples.

The recipe calls for peeling the apples. I admit that peeling apples is not my favorite cooking task, so I

Apple Crisp

Preheat oven to 350.

Place apple slices in an 8x8 baking pan, toss with cinnamon, and add water. In a bowl, combine softened Earth Balance with remaining ingredients until the mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle this mixture over the apples. Bake uncovered for 40 minutes. Serve plain or with a splash of nondairy milk.

usually remove only about half of the peel and that seems to work fine. Suit yourself on this point. You may want to have extra apples handy — I find that we keep eating apple slices as we go.

As for the flour, the recipe calls for plain white flour, and that’s how Mamma always made it, but I like to bake with whole grain flours, so I use whole spelt flour or whole wheat pastry flour. Again, suit yourself.

As always, the most important ingredient in anything you make for your children is the affection with which it is prepared and served.

— MDT

Bonnie Ambrosi lives in Duluth and is an organizer of The Vegan Cookbook Club which meets at 11:30 a.m. on the first Thursday of every month at Mount Royal Branch Library. Contact her at bonnieambrosi@gmail.com.