I can usually tell if I'll like a recipe just from reading the ingredients. Unless it's from smittenkitchen. In which case, I don't even have to read it. The names themselves are enough to sell me. "Apple granola crisp." All the right words for an autumn breakfast. The best part? You can make a whole 9x13, and the eat apple granola crisp for breakfast every morning for a week. It's just as good cold as it is hot out of the oven.
I modified the recipe somewhat for my Hotel guests. I enjoy utilizing individual serving sizes (it takes less bake time, and wastes less when you only have 2 guests. Plus it just looks cute and makes them feel special. "What? I get my own little ramekin of apple granola crisp? You are too kind!"), so I cut the recipe in half.
I accidentally made an extra. Two extras actually. So I ate one for breakfast along with my guests and had the second one for lunch. (Love when that happens!) They smelled so scrumptious baking, getting all bubbly and aromatic. The textures were fabulous. The right amount of crisp with tender apples. It was tres facile, and it's got "apple" and "granola" in the name so we can pretend it's healthy, too.
Apple Granola Crisp - serves 4 (if you want the 9x13 recipe, go
here)
4 apples, peeled, cored, and cut into chunks ( I used Gala apples, and they worked well)
1 T lemon juice
1.5 T sugar
1 T corn starch
1/2 t. cinnamon
salt
4 T unsalted butter (if you don't have unsalted, just dial back on the salt you add in...kind of obvious, but it took me a few years to figure that out. I almost always just buy unsalted butter now)
1/8 c. honey
1/4 c. flour
1 c. oats (I used quick oats, but I doubt it matters)
1/4 c. sliced almonds
1/4 c. shredded coconut (I used sweetened)
Preheat oven to 400. Mix apple chunks with lemon juice, sugar, corn starch, cinnamon, and a pinch of salt. Divide among 4 ramekins (I'm not sure what size mine were. They held 12 oz of water when I tried to figure it out for you, so I'm going to call them 12 oz ramekins. You're welcome.). In a small sauce pan, melt the butter with the honey. Stir in the flour, oats, almonds, & coconut. Sprinkle evenly over the apple mixture and bake for 35 minutes or until apples are bubbly (and you can hardly stand the smell!). If the granola starts to brown before it's done, cover them with foil until the last few minutes of bake time so the granola is nice and cripsy when you eat it. Let cool. (Or don't.) Eat with yogurt and in the time it takes you to polish off one ramekin, admire the orange foliage of the sugar-maple out your living room window.
