'Smells good,' Leo called from the front room, where he was sitting in his favorite chair by the stove, the dog curled up on a blanket in front of the fire. Mac lifted his nose and sniffed the air. 'He thinks so, too.'

'The dog knows his apples.' Alice laughed. 'He should. He's named after one.'

– Alice Shipman (Wade Rouse), The Recipe Box

This type of dessert is fairly simple to make. You can use any sort of apple, but firmer apples tend to keep their shape better when baked. So McIntosh, Braeburn,Granny Smith,Pink Lady, or Honeycrisp are good choices.
A crisp or crumble usually has a topping made from oats, flour, butter, and sugar which completely covers the fruit. A Brown Betty (as in “Apple Brown Betty”) is similar to a crisp, but has no oats in its buttery crumb topping. And rather than having the topping solely on top of the fruit, it’s layered throughout, then baked.

Ingredients

• 6 cups of peeled,cored,sliced apples(about 1 Kilogram)A Brief Guide to Cooks' Measurements
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (1mL)
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice (15mL)
• 1 tablespoon water (15mL)

Topping

• 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar (180 mL)
• 1/2 cup flour (160mL)
• 1/2 cup oats (160mL)
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon (5mL)
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (1mL)
• a pinch of salt (what you can pick up between your thumb and index finger)
• 6 tablespoons of unsalted butter (90mL)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. Take the core out of and peel one Kilogram of apples, and cut them into 1/4 inch slices (6 mm).
3. Dump the slices with the cinnamon, lemon juice and water into an 8 inch by 8 inch tin or glass pan (20 cm x 20 cm).
4. In a medium bowl, whisk all the topping ingredients except the butter. Using a pastry cutter or two knives slice the butter (or a non-dairy alternative) until the mixture is crumbly.The solid sticky butter gets coated with the topping making crumbs. Sprinkle this over the apples.
5. Bake this for about 45 minutes until the apples are tender and the topping is crisp and browned.
6. Serve it warm with whipped cream, ice cream or a non-dairy alternative.

This recipe yields 6 to 8 servings and can be easily doubled using a 9 by 13 inch baking tin (23 cm by 32 cm).It can also
be made in a gluten free recipe by substituting gluten free flour and gluten free oats.