Apple Crisp

This apple crisp is healthy enough for breakfast and indulgent enough for dessert – especially with cream or ice cream.

I only bake with Cortland Apples, and I often add blueberries, pears, or a few cranberries. Change it up based on what you have and what you crave!

I’ve used demerera sugar here, it’s my personal favourite, but any brown sugar would work (any other kind of sugar will change how it bakes).

A tip on ground flax: I like the Bob’s Red Mill brand and you can get a bag on Amazon for a good price, but be sure to keep it in the fridge or freezer, flax can easily go rancid.

Fruit Crisp

• 3/4 cup salted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup large flake oats
• 1 cup oat bran (find it in the same aisle as the oats, cream of wheat, etc)
• 1 cup demerara sugar
• 1/4 cup ground flax
• 10-12 cups fruit

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

You can use a food processor, mixer or wooden spoon to combine the topping ingredients, I prefer the mixer so the oats don’t get chopped up. It’s important that the butter is at room temperature or it won’t distribute through the topping properly and won’t bake properly.

Arrange the fruit in an oven-proof dish or across a couple of dishes – no need to butter it first unless you want to. Sprinkle the blended topping over the top and into the nooks and crannies, and press gently to merge it together.

Bake at 375 F for 10 minutes and then drop the oven temperature to 350 F and bake for another 40 minutes, checking regularly – depending on the type and size of dish you’ve used, the time can vary. Look for the fruit to be bubbling around the edges and the topping to look crispy but not dark.

Individual portion size

I have been known to make a single serving late morning and eat it for lunch, here’s the proportional ingredients:

• 3 tbsp salted butter, at room temperature
• 1/4 cup oats
• 1/4 cup oat bran
• 1/4 cup sugar
• tbsp or two of flax
• ~2 cups of fruit (one really large Cortland apple is usually perfect)

Bake the same as above but once the oven is down to 350, check more often as it will cook more quickly.