61. Apple Crisp (p. 812)

I made this recipe* for dessert when Travis and Jodi came over for dinner a few weeks ago. Since I knew that time would be short, and that I wanted to devote my full attention to my Roasted Chicken with Pan Gravy, I looked for something that was relatively easy to make. And with the leaves changing color all around me, this quintessential fall dessert just about leapt off the pages of The Book.

This dessert has everything I could want in an apple crisp. The sweet, crunchy, crispy topping was delicious, and the apple filling, if a bit softer and more applesauce-like than I'd like it to be, was very good. The addition of orange zest gave it a really unexpected flavor kick.

I really liked this dessert, but it looks like I'm the odd man out among the Gourmet cook-through-bloggers. Neither Teena nor Kevin gave this recipe high marks. Kevin thought that the filling was too sweet and that the texture was all wrong. Both of them were less than impressed with the topping. Kevin was displeased with its "cookiness," and Teena thought that it was "grainy." I must admit that I agree with Teena that the pecans in the topping cooked a lot faster than the rest of the dish, to the point of almost being burned (I actually had to cover the whole dish with aluminum foil a little more than halfway through the cooking time to prevent the nuts from getting totally incinerated). Other than that, though, I thought it was a winner, especially when served warm and topped with a dallop of vanilla ice cream. I didn't see this dish on Melissa's blog. Maybe she'll make it soon and if she likes it, we'll be all tied up, two to two. Come on, Melissa, don't leave me hanging.

One thing to note if you do make this recipe, you'll have enough apple crisp to feed an army. The dish pictured above is one of those great big lasagna pans, and you can see how full it is. Hope you're hungry.

Date Cooked: October 4, 2008
Degree of Difficulty: Medium
Rating A-

*This recipe does not appear to be on epicurious.com.