Kids Make Apple Crisp

This week we started a culinary world food tour in our "food appreciation" classes and our first stop outside the District of Columbia is the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia where fall means apples. Kids love using a mechanical apple peeler. It used to be every family had one, apples were such an important food. We are using ours to make a simple apple crisp, a traditional dessert that takes only a few minutes to prepare.

First, we peel and core 6 medium apples. We used Golden Delicious. Cut the apples into bit-size pieces, a job made easy by our peeling device, which turns the apple into a spiral while it is coring.


Squeeze the juice from 1 lemon.

Toss the apples with the lemon juice in a pie plate or tin. We used a standard, round Pyrex pie plate.

Meanwhile, mix the "crisp," first whisking together 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Next, cut 1/4 cup chilled, unsalted butter into the dry ingredients using quick, pinching movements of your fingers to squeeze everything together.

Sprinkle the crisp mixture over the apples, then slide into a 375-degree oven and bake for 35 minutes, or until the crisp is beginning to brown and the apples are starting to bubble.

Serve warm or room temperature. This crisp is delicious as is, the cooked apples all muddled together with the cinnamony topping. But you could also serve it with vanilla ice cream, sour cream or--my favorite--fresh, tangy, homemade yogurt.