Apple Crisp

I've been wanting to eat some apple pie for about 2 weeks now, but we seriously lack any good place to get apple pie close to here.  There are a couple of grocery store options, but honestly, if I'm going to consume the calories, I'd like it to be really worth it.

I toyed with the idea of making the pie myself, but I always find pie making to be overly messy and time consuming, and since I don't do it often, I find my pastry is a little hit or miss.

Instead of pie, I made apple crisp!  I wouldn't say this was a compromise, since apple crisp is such a great dessert no matter what you compare it to, and truth-be-told, I don't like pie crust anyway.

I did my own thing recipe-wise, and we liked our result so much, I had to write it down.

Recipe

Topping:

1 1/3 cups packed brown sugar
1 cup flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup quick oats
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup softened (room temperature-ish) unsalted butter

Filling:

8-10 Jonagold apples (or tart-ish, firm apples of your choice)
2 1/2 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees (F).  Mix dry ingredients together for topping, then cut in butter using a pastry blender.  Set aside.

Meanwhile, peel, core and slice the apples (I cut mine into 1/2"-1/4" wedges).  Coat with flour and cinnamon.  I just sprinkled the flour and cinnamon over the apples in the pan, then tossed them with a couple of spoons.  I remembered just as I was finishing this, that the easiest way to do this is to put the apples in a ziploc freezer bag with the flour/cinnamon mixture and shake it.

Put the apple mixture in a rectangular pan that measures approximately 8" x 11".

Sprinkle the topping over the apple mixture and bake for approximately 45-55 minutes, or until crisp topping is browned and apples are the firmness you desire in a crisp.

On another note...

Jack is 3 months old today!  He was playing on his play mat while I had my coffee and updated this post (about 5 feet from him) when I noticed things had become a little quiet.  I looked over and there he was sleeping on his side!  He's just started turning on his side consistently and constantly in the last week.

He's been sleeping a little more than usual in the last few days, and it's so neat to watch his new skills emerge when this happens!  Last night he slept from midnight to 6am, then 7am to 8:30am, then he was up for about an hour before falling asleep again.

He seems to nap and lounge until about 1pm on a lot of days and then he's up from then until about midnight with a few mini naps (10-30 minutes) in between.  Not ideal, but at least we're getting a little more sleep at night.