Apple Crisp Redux

Sometimes I feel like baking (and eating!) something delicious but am too lazy to put forth a lot of effort. An apple crisp is the perfect solution. As I've said before, I like to think of apple crisp as a lazy apple pie. It's even better than apple pie in one sense, since it's got a great, well, crisp (duh). I've posted about apple crisp before, but here's a slightly different recipe from the Food Network. The only effortful part consists of peeling the apples. I suppose you can leave the skin on, but I think that's silly. Just invest in a good peeler. Anyway, I whipped this recipe up the other day and added a scoop of vanilla icecream. I held the nuts, of couse (allergic). The best part is, you can nuke leftover crisp for days and it tastes practically as good as it did when it was fresh from the oven.

2/3 cup rolled oats
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
1/3 cup pecans, toasted, chopped
A pinch of fine salt
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into bits
4 medium baking apples, such as Braeburn, Rome, or Golden Delicious (I used Rome)

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly butter 6 (6-ounce) ramekins. I used a large glass pan instead.
  
• Whisk the oats, flour, brown sugar, pecans, and salt in a medium bowl. Rub in the butter with your fingertips until it is in even, pea-size pieces. Peel, core, and slice the apples and divide evenly among the ramekins. Scatter the crisp topping evenly.
• Transfer the ramekins to a baking sheet and cook until the fruit bubbles around the sides and the top is golden, about 30 minutes. You won't see the top brown very much within 30 minutes if you use a glass pan, but the fruit should be cooked.
  
• Preheat a broiler. Place the crisps about 4 inches from the broiler and cook until golden brown, about 30 seconds. I skipped this step and just cranked the oven until I saw the top brown more. Again, the key word here is lazy.
• Enjoy with some icecream!

Next time, I think I'll try to make more topping for more crispiness. This recipe doesn't call for any spices, so I think next time I'll add some cinnamon. Overall, I think my first effort may have been better.