Skillet Apple Crisp (One-Pan, About an Hour)
Apple wedges sautéed in butter in one ovensafe skillet and coated with reduced cider, covered with a pecan, oat and brown sugar crumble made with melted butter, and baked hot at 450°F for 15 to 20 minutes until the fruit is tender and the top deep golden.
The apple crisp is younger than it tastes. Wikipedia's crumble article says the dish is missing from the first Fannie Farmer cookbook of 1896, that the earliest apple crisp reference may be in Good Housekeeping in September 1915, and that the earliest apple crumble may be in Canada's Farmer's Magazine in February 1917, both with a topping of only flour, sugar and butter. The oats came later: the earliest known crisp with oats is probably in The Questors Cook Book of 1943, and Betty Crocker added them in 1956. The food historian Alan Davidson thought the crumble was a wartime food, born of British rationing, though the crisp recipes are older than the war.
This is the weeknight crisp: no pastry, no chilling and one pan. America's Test Kitchen's version starts the apples on the stove, so they cook evenly and give up their extra juice before the topping goes on, then finishes in a very hot oven in the same skillet.
🇺🇸 This one is American
Apple wedges sautéed in butter in one ovensafe skillet and coated with reduced cider, covered with a pecan, oat and brown sugar crumble made with melted butter, and baked hot at 450°F for 15 to 20 minutes until the fruit is tender and the top deep golden.
🇬🇧 The original
England baked apple pies centuries before America: a short pastry crust filled with apples, sugar and spice, the line that settlers carried across the Atlantic. See the English Apple Pie (Cooking Apples Under a Pastry Lid) recipe.
Why it works the kitchen science
Apples started on the stove
Stirring them over the burner cooks the thick wedges evenly and drives off extra moisture, so the oven only has to finish them and the topping stays crisp instead of steaming.
Reduced cider
Boiling the cider down concentrates its apple flavor and sugar, so a half cup does the work of a whole one without flooding the pan.
Watch it in 60 seconds
Step by step
- Step 1
Heat the oven to 450°F with a rack in the middle and line a rimmed baking sheet with foil. Mix the flour, pecans, oats, both sugars, cinnamon and salt, then stir in the melted butter until evenly moistened and crumbly.
- Step 2
Toss the apples with the sugar and cinnamon. In a 12-inch ovensafe skillet over medium heat, simmer the cider until it is reduced to 1/2 cup, about 5 minutes. Pour it into a measuring cup and stir in the lemon juice.
- Step 3
Melt the butter in the empty skillet over medium heat. Add the apples and cook, stirring often, 12 to 14 minutes, until they begin to soften and turn translucent but are not fully cooked.
- Step 4
Off the heat, gently stir in the cider mixture until the apples are coated. Spread the topping evenly over them, breaking up big clumps.
- Step 5
Set the skillet on the foil-lined sheet and bake 15 to 20 minutes, turning the sheet halfway, until the topping is deep golden brown and a knife slides easily into the apples.
- Step 6
Cool the skillet on a rack 15 minutes and serve warm, ideally with vanilla ice cream.
Skillet Apple Crisp (One-Pan, About an Hour)
Serves 8 · one 12-inch skillet · 1 hr total
Topping
- 3/4 cup (3 3/4 oz) all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup pecans, chopped fine
- 3/4 cup (2 1/4 oz) old-fashioned rolled oats
- 1/2 cup packed (3 1/2 oz) light brown sugar
- 1/4 cup (1 3/4 oz) sugar
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 8 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
Filling
- 3 lb Golden Delicious apples, peeled, cored, halved and cut into 1/2-inch wedges
- 1/4 cup (1 3/4 oz) sugar
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 cup apple cider
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
Method
- Heat the oven to 450°F with a rack in the middle and line a rimmed baking sheet with foil. Mix the flour, pecans, oats, both sugars, cinnamon and salt, then stir in the melted butter until evenly moistened and crumbly.
- Toss the apples with the sugar and cinnamon. In a 12-inch ovensafe skillet over medium heat, simmer the cider until it is reduced to 1/2 cup, about 5 minutes. Pour it into a measuring cup and stir in the lemon juice.
- Melt the butter in the empty skillet over medium heat. Add the apples and cook, stirring often, 12 to 14 minutes, until they begin to soften and turn translucent but are not fully cooked.
- Off the heat, gently stir in the cider mixture until the apples are coated. Spread the topping evenly over them, breaking up big clumps.
- Set the skillet on the foil-lined sheet and bake 15 to 20 minutes, turning the sheet halfway, until the topping is deep golden brown and a knife slides easily into the apples.
- Cool the skillet on a rack 15 minutes and serve warm, ideally with vanilla ice cream.
Adapted from America's Test Kitchen, "Skillet Apple Crisp", as reprinted by WNYC (The Leonard Lopate Show, September 26, 2014), serves 6 to 8. We follow it as written: a topping of 3/4 cup (3 3/4 oz) flour, 3/4 cup finely chopped pecans, 3/4 cup (2 1/4 oz) old-fashioned oats, 1/2 cup (3 1/2 oz) packed light brown sugar, 1/4 cup (1 3/4 oz) sugar, 1/2 tsp cinnamon and 1/2 tsp salt stirred with 8 tbsp melted butter; 3 lb Golden Delicious apples in 1/2-inch wedges tossed with 1/4 cup sugar and 1/4 tsp cinnamon; 1 cup cider reduced to 1/2 cup in the skillet (about 5 minutes) and mixed with 2 tsp lemon juice; the apples cooked in 2 tbsp butter 12 to 14 minutes, not fully; the topping spread over; 15 to 20 minutes at 450°F on a foil-lined baking sheet, rotated halfway, until the fruit is tender and the topping deep golden brown; 15 minutes cooling. ATK gives 1 hour 25 minutes in all; our prep and cook split is an estimate. History from Wikipedia, "Crumble". King Arthur Baking's Classic Apple Crisp was also read and is quoted in Tips. wnyc.org. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
All sources (3)
Tips
- No ovensafe skillet? ATK says to cook through the apples, move them to a 13-by-9-inch baking dish, add the topping and bake 5 minutes longer.
- ATK: Honeycrisp or Braeburn can replace Golden Delicious, but don't use Granny Smith. Quick oats work; instant oats don't.
- King Arthur's oven-only Classic Apple Crisp bakes a similar oat streusel over raw sliced apples in a 9-inch square pan at 350°F for about 60 minutes, until bubbling and golden, and rests it at least 20 minutes.
- For eight individual crisps, King Arthur uses 8-ounce baking dishes and bakes them 45 to 55 minutes.
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- The crumble is a World War II invention. Disputed: Alan Davidson thought it was a wartime food from British rationing; Wikipedia cites an apple crisp in Good Housekeeping in 1915 and a crumble in 1917.
- A crisp has oats and a crumble doesn't. Disputed: Taste of Home separates them by oats and nuts, The Kitchn by nuts, and The Washington Post sees very little daylight between them (all as Wikipedia summarizes).
- Apple crisp always had oats. Documented as false in Wikipedia's account: the earliest oat crisp is probably from 1943, and Betty Crocker added oats in 1956.
- Granny Smiths make the best crisp. Disputed: ATK says not to use them in this skillet crisp; King Arthur uses them in its blog crisp because they hold up well.
Every other apple pie
English Apple Pie (Cooking Apples Under a Pastry Lid)
Chunks of tart cooking apples with honey, cinnamon and mixed spice piled into a deep pie dish under a single lid of butter shortcrust, glazed with egg and baked hot at 400°F until golden and bubbling.
Wiener Apfelstrudel (Viennese Apple Strudel)
A soft egg and oil dough stretched over a floured tablecloth until it's paper thin, brushed with butter, layered with hazelnut breadcrumbs fried in butter, sliced apples, rum-soaked raisins, cinnamon and cloves, rolled up and baked at 350°F until golden.
Tarte Tatin (French Upside-Down Apple Tart)
Apple quarters packed in a skillet and softened in butter, covered with a light amber caramel cooked to 355°F, topped with a chilled disk of butter pastry, baked at 350°F until the edges bubble thick and syrupy, then flipped onto a platter.
Appeltaart (Dutch Apple Pie)
A tall springform pie with a cookie-like brown sugar crust pressed in by hand, packed with precooked Golden Delicious apples, golden raisins and speculaas-style spices, topped with a crisscross of dough strips and baked at 375°F for about 75 minutes. Served "met slagroom", with whipped cream.
Versunkener Apfelkuchen (German Sunken Apple Cake)
A buttery vanilla and lemon batter spread in a springform, topped with a ring of peeled apple quarters scored on top so they fan open and sink as the cake rises around them, baked at 350°F for about 45 minutes and brushed hot with apricot jam.
Gammeldags Æblekage (Danish Old-Fashioned Apple Cake)
Not a cake at all: tart apples cooked with vanilla and lemon into a chunky sauce and chilled, breadcrumbs toasted golden in butter and sugar, and lightly whipped cream, layered in glasses just before serving.
Sharlotka (Russian Apple Sponge Cake)
Four eggs and a cup of sugar beaten until thick and airy, a cup of flour folded in with diced apples, baked in one pan at 350°F for 35 to 40 minutes, then topped while hot with sour cream stirred with orange marmalade.
Classic American Apple Pie (Double Crust)
Eight cups of thin-sliced apples tossed with sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice, thickened with flour and cornstarch and dotted with butter, sealed between two flaky butter and shortening crusts, baked at 425°F and then 375°F until the filling bubbles hard through the vents.
Pennsylvania Dutch Apple Pie (Crumb Top)
One flaky shortening crust filled with 2 pounds of apples tossed with sugar, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg, covered with a lumpy brown sugar and butter streusel instead of a top crust, baked at 425°F and then 350°F.
Apple Pandowdy (Old New England Pan Dowdy)
Apples with sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg, molasses and butter baked between two crusts in a square pan at 425°F, then the top crust is slashed and pushed down into the juices in rough chunks, "dowdied", so it turns half crisp, half pudding.
Vermont Apple Pie with Cheddar Crust
A butter crust with grated sharp Vermont cheddar folded in, filled with sliced apples, sugar, maple syrup and apple pie spice, layered with thin slices of more cheddar under the top crust and baked at 375°F until browned. Vermont's 1999 state pie law names cheddar as one way to serve it.
Southern Fried Apple Pies (Dried-Apple Hand Pies)
Dried apples simmered soft and mashed with sugar and cinnamon, spooned onto 5-inch rounds of lard pastry, folded into half-moons, crimped with a fork and fried in lard at 350°F until blistered and lightly browned.
Fried Apple Hand Pies (Inspired by McDonald's, Not Official)
A copycat of the original fried fast food apple pie, inspired by McDonald's, not official: diced apples sautéed in browned butter with brown sugar and cinnamon, sealed in rectangles of pie dough and deep-fried at 375°F until golden and shatteringly crisp.
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