I hope you all had a magical thanksgiving full of good food and major amounts of pie to put a smile on your face. Sorry I have been so busy lately traveling that blogging has been difficult.

My Thanksgiving was lovely and full of laughter. We had roasted turkey, green bean casserole, blueberry brie cheese over italian crackers, sour cream mashed potatoes, and an incredible sweet potato casserole with a oatmeal pecan brown sugar streusel. Three days later I’m still not sick of the leftovers.

I wish I would have snapped photos of how beautiful everything turned out, but I was too busy running around the kitchen and enjoying time spent with good people. However, I have to admit that I tried to make some of the dishes healthy because I knew that I had to have dessert; which on Thanksgiving is actually more like my main meal. This year’s included a ridiculous chocolate ganache pie with a toasted marshmallow topping and this stupidly good apple crisp served warm and topped with vanilla bean ice cream.

I was in a food coma for a good 36 hours.

Obviously worth it.

A couple of months ago Joanna of A Cup of Jo and the lovely Shoko asked if I would create a recipe for Joanna’s basic food series. Of course I said yes!

At first I wasn’t sure what recipe I would share but since I have been making apple crisp for years, I knew that this was truly the best.  It’s also one of my most requested recipes! For some reason men can’t seem to get enough of it.  Have I mentioned that baking for men is totally romantic.

In fact, this recipe convinced me to fall in love with this dessert all over again. I love when that happens.

So what’s different about this apple crisp? It truly transforms into an extraordinary dessert with the addition of brown butter (my fav), vanilla bean, and a splash of bourbon. There’s also a bit of almonds in the topping, which I love, but you can use pecans or omit the nuts completely.

Oh and yes I did put bourbon in my crisp. Because quite frankly, baking with bourbon is just freaking awesome.

I truly can’t seem to put into words how fantastic this apple crisp is. Everyone always asks me for this recipe, and I’m sure they’ll ask you, too! It’s best served straight out of the oven, warm, with a big scoop of vanilla bean ice cream.

The Best Apple Crisp You’ll Ever Have {with brown butter, vanilla bean, + bourbon}

 

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Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

60 mins

Total time

1 hour 15 mins

 

The best apple crisp you’ll ever have. No seriously, ever.

Author: Monique of AmbitiousKitchen.com

Recipe type: Dessert

Serves: 6-8

Ingredients

• For the topping:
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup old-fashioned oats
• 1 cup dark brown sugar
• ½ cup chopped almonds
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened and cut into pieces
• For the filling:
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
• 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
• 6 medium-sized Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and very thinly sliced
• 1/3 cup dark brown sugar
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tbsp. bourbon

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Generously grease an 8×8 baking pan.
2. To make the topping: Combine the flour, oats, brown sugar and almonds in a large bowl until well-combined. Add in the pieces of butter and use your hands to squeeze and combine until the mixture becomes crumbly and resembles wet sand. (Alternatively, you can cut in the butter with a pastry cutter, or place all of the topping ingredients in a food processor and pulse until just blended. My favorite method is to use my hands, as I believe you get the best crumbly topping that way.)
3. Once finished, place topping in the fridge and begin making the apple filling.
4. To make the filling: Place butter and seeds from the vanilla bean in a medium saucepan, and turn heat on medium. After a couple of minutes the butter will begin to crackle and foam—make sure you whisk consistently during this process! Another minute or two, and you will notice the butter turning a slight brown (caramel) color on the bottom of the saucepan; continue to whisk and remove from heat as soon as the butter begins to give off a nutty aroma. Immediately transfer the butter to a bowl to prevent it from burning. Set aside to cool for a few minutes.
5. While the butter is cooling, place apples, 1/3 cup brown sugar, cinnamon and bourbon in a large bowl and toss to combine. Add the brown butter to this apple mixture and toss again to combine.
6. Take a heaping ½ cup of the topping mixture and toss with the apple mixture. Place the apple mixture in prepared pan and sprinkle evenly with topping. It may seem like a lot of topping, but the apples will cook down and the topping will provide an excellent crunchy exterior.
7. Bake the crisp on a baking sheet (just in case the filling bubbles over!) for 55-60 minutes, or until topping is golden brown and filling is bubbling. Remove from oven and cool 10 minutes on wire rack. Serve warm with vanilla bean ice cream.

Notes

Feel free to use different nuts instead of almonds—or leave out nuts completely. If you don’t have bourbon on hand, you can use whiskey, or replace with ½ teaspoon vanilla extract.

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