Grandma's Apple Crunch

Messy Messy Fail - I knew it was starting to get colder out.  I documented our first snow fall last Thursday on my Instagram account.  It needs to be in the lower 30's for it to be snowing.  That's cold.  Did I bring my summer outdoor plants in to keep them from being murdered?  Of course not.  Farewell yellow begonia, coleus, potato vine and canna lilies.  It's been real.

Tidy Victory - I'm getting ready to participate in this really cool blogger Ornament Exchange hosted by the magnificent Erlene - go to her blog and click on the different postings for every day of the ornament exchange!  I submitted my name and contact information along with some ornament preferences (which I have none, the more random the better!) and was paired up with Rae from Wine and Insolence to exchange homemade or purchased Christmas ornaments.  We have exchanged a few emails and some of our similarities are uncanny.  I've been plotting a few ornaments to make, but I don't want to give away any details just yet (she likes surprises, like me!).  Stay tuned for a post about our exchange and how I made her ornament - can't wait to share!

Being that I still have a bushel - yes that's right, an entire BUSHEL - of apples to use, I pulled out an oldie but goody recipe from my mother-in-law.  The first time my husband and I went apple picking (I think we picked 3 bushels - insane in the membrane), it was prior to having our boys.  I didn't have a lot of domesticality under my belt yet and was looking for recipes to use for all the apples we had just picked.

Half of them did get thrown away, but that's another story.

He had mentioned this amazing apple crisp he said his mom used to make for him.  I am a fan of the stuff, so I was totally game.

That is a big challenge, though - make apple crisp as good as his mother did.

Woah.

So on a hunting trip home, he raided her recipes and sent it to me as a picture message.

"Apple Crunch" read the recipe.

Huh?

He swore this was the right recipe.  So a-baking I went.

And I was not sorry.

At all.

What a keeper this one was.

Here's what you need:

• 1 c. sugar
• 1 tbsp. flour
• 1 tbsp. cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 8 c. peeled and sliced apples
• 1 c. firmly packed brown sugar
• 1 c. butter
• 2 c. flour
• 1/4 tsp. salt

Here's what you do:

• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
• Toss the sugar, 1 tbsp. flour, cinnamon and 1/8 tsp. salt with the apple slices.

• Spoon this mixture into a greased 8x12 baking dish.

• Mix the brown sugar, butter, 2 c. of flour and 1/4 tsp. salt in a bowl and blend with a pastry cutter (this recipe was my excuse this year to finally purchase one!) until it resembles course meal consistency.

• Sprinkle this topping over the apples.
• Bake for about 40 minutes or until golden brown.  Can be served warm or cold.  Try some fresh whipped cream or ice cream with it.

This recipe truly is phenomenal - the flavor of the apples with those few ingredients along with the cobbler-like topping is just unbelievable.  I think a major difference between this recipe and a crisp is that the latter tends to use oats in the topping and this does not.  Just a rugged, crunchy topping to compliment the soft baked goodness of the apples.

My mother-in-law said she found this recipe in a Grange cookbook her mother-in-law gave her from back in the day - I felt like a fool when she had to explain to me what a Grange cookbook was.  You can find out about the National Grange here.  The local orders would put out cookbooks as a fundraiser.

Looks like we've got a winner with this recipe!

Try it out and let me know what you think - quick and easy!

No pie crust necessary - all the ingredients were items I typically have in my pantry, minus the 8 cups of apples of course.

Perhaps substitute this for your Thanksgiving pie!

Do you have an old favorite recipe from a family member?

Linking up with....