A sweet fall treat

As the growing season slowly comes to its end, it is the time for apples. Crab apples, big apples, green apples, red apples, small apples, ample apples and other apples are undoubtedly on trees in your community.

Figuring out what to do with all those apples can be a problem. A single person can only eat so many. Then, too, comes the problem that harvested apples have — worms.

There are some answers when it comes to figuring out a good use for apples: Chutneys, crisps, cobblers, pies, sauces, hard and soft ciders. You can also preserve, bake, macerate and press.

Making a crisp is my favorite way to use apples. Few things in this world are more delicious than the crumble topping, as it melds brown sugar, butter and oats.

Making an apple crisp is pretty simple. Prepare the apples which, if they are especially crisp, could require some quick cooking in a pot, add in some extra fruit, a little sugar, mix together the crisp, put it all in a baking dish and you’re done.

There is another way, if you feel like your sweet tooth really needs to be indulged.

Instead of just leaving the crisp to the bottom, you can create what I call the double crisp. A crisp lines the bottom of the baking dish, gets toasted in the oven and creates a more pie-like experience than the normal messy experience of doling out a regular cobbler or crisp.

To just use the crisp on the top, halve the amounts listed in the ingredients for the crumble. The halved crumble amounts are listed in parentheses next to the original ingredients.

Cooking down the apples is optional in this recipe. For gooey apples, cook them down in the pot. It’s purely a matter of personal preference. For crisper apples, mix them in a large bowl with the sugar, cinnamon and raspberries before adding them to the baking dish.

I might not have given many words to the raspberries, but I find they add a nice tartness and additional flavor.

If you have harvested the apples yourself, worms are likely a problem. However, I find wormed apples are rarely a waste. Cut around the affected areas and easily half, to two-thirds of the apple is still ready to be sliced and baked in the cobbler.