last night, our lovely neighbors cooked us an amazing dinner – salmon fishcakes, and they were so delicious! i need to get that recipe 
they were so sweet to make us a meal, especially with all of my dietary restrictions. they used goat’s cream instead of regular for the sauce – and i’m so glad they did, because it was absolutely beautiful. i’ve gotten so used to having things without cream-based sauces that i had forgotten how yummy they are!
as a thank you for preparing such a great dinner, i made my standard dessert for us all to enjoy. this has become my go-to pudding to prepare for a small group. it’s great to get a recipe that never fails – but it’s equally great to find small tweaks every now and then to make it even better.
turns out, however, that i was calling it by the wrong name. my easy apple cobbler should really be called easy apple crisp. so that is its new name. tweak number one: new name. tweak number two: using pink lady apples. this isn’t a massive difference, but i just LOVE the flavor that pink ladies bring to a baked apple dish. they somehow maintain some of their crunch, even when blasted in a hot oven for the better part of an hour. tweak number three: using a gluten-free granola for the topping. thanks to sainsbury’s for this one! one of my take-home goodies from the dinner party was a box of freefrom sunflower seed & hazelnut granola, which i knew would be perfect for this dessert. it contains some wonderful and healthy ingredients, too – buckwheat flakes, sunflower seeds, hazelnut nibs, golden linseed, flaked almonds, etc etc. so now we have a pretty healthy dessert on our hands! if you’re based in the uk, i highly recommend picking up a box of this stuff.
easy apple crisp
serves about 6.
the particulars:
- 6 pink lady apples, peeled cored and diced small (or more if you’re making a larger dish)
- 1 cup maple syrup
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- juice of 1 lemon
- 2 cups granola (use gluten-free variety if needed)
- preheat the oven to 350F/gas mark 4.
- mix together the maple syrup, lemon juice, and cinnamon in a bowl. pour into a metal or glass baking dish. as you chop up the apple pieces, add them to the dish, spooning the mixture on top of the apples as you go.
- bake for 45 minutes, or until the mixture is bubbling.
- take out of the oven and sprinkle the granola on top. return to the oven for 5 minutes, or until slightly browned on top.
- pour out excess liquid (if needed), serve hot. (with ice cream too!)
lesson learned: can’t wait to make this all summer long with different fruit – i’ve made this before with pears, nectarines, and plums. all good stuff.
