Fall baking brings a special kind of joy, filling kitchens with warm, comforting aromas. As the air turns crisp and cool, baking becomes a cozy ritual and it’s the perfect time for pies, breads and other baked treats, like pumpkin bread or all things apple.
One of the easiest fall dessert recipes is an apple crisp, where apples are tossed with sugar and spices and baked under a topping that crisps up in the oven. The crisp topping is often made from a mixture of flour, oats, butter and sugar, which is crumbled over the apples. As the dessert bakes, the apples soften and the topping turns golden and crispy, or at least that’s the plan. Sometimes the moisture in the apples sogs out the topping, which is a sad situation.
Lucky for you, we recently happened upon a trick that can save your apple crisp from getting the sad soggies—and you might have it in your cabinet right now. A box of Grape-Nuts cereal is key to the best-ever apple crisp. Here’s what you need to know.
Related: 84 Sweet and Savory Apple Recipes to Make This Fall
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How to Make Apple Crisp With Grape-Nuts
Chef John over at AllRecipes cracked the code to never-soggy apple crisp: adding Grape-Nuts to the topping mixture. In his recipe, he uses a mixture of flour, oats, melted butter, white and brown sugar and some Grape-Nuts. He uses half a cup of the cereal, but you can adjust that based on how much apple crisp you’re making and/or how crispy you like your topping. You can also use the name-brand cereal or a store brand—either will work.
Prepare your apples as you normally would for an apple crisp, then pile on the crisp topping. Bake at 375° until the apples are soft and juicy and the topping is crispy. Serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream for the ultimate fall dessert.
If you’d like to try another version, you can also take a look at the apple crisp recipe on the Grape-Nuts site, which features a crumble topping made with Grape-Nuts, graham cracker crumbs, cinnamon, brown sugar, melted butter and apricot preserves.
Once we ran across these recipes, we started thinking about the other cereals that might make a fun apple crisp addition. We’re thinking Cornflakes, Honey Bunches of Oats, Wheat Chex or even Cracklin’ Oat Bran (raise your hand if you remember those!) could be fun things to try.
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Related: 7 Easy Ways to Keep Sliced Apples From Turning Brown, According to Apple Orchard Owners
