Best Strawberry Apple Crisp

A delicious juicy strawberry apple crisp that can be put together and baked in under an hour. The perfect ratio of chunky tender sweet fruit to crisp crunchy nutty topping.

Why you’ll love it

• It has a super simple-to-make juicy layer of fruit.
• It’s effortless to put together – no precooking ingredients or toasting needed, just mix, assemble and bake.
• Like most crisp and crumble recipes, it’s much less effort and preparation than making pie but just as tasty (if not tastier!).
• If you prefer plant-based or vegan recipes you just need to swap out the butter for vegan butter.

And if you like this then you might want to try some of my other strawberry recipes, like this strawberry bread or this creamy vegan strawberry banana smoothie.

Ingredients and substitutions

This a really simple crisp with just a handful of ingredients so there’s not a huge amount of room for substitutions, but you can check out what you’ll need from the image below and scroll down to see what you can do if you’re missing anything.

Strawberries: Use fresh strawberries ideally, however, if they are out of season you can also use frozen strawberries but you’ll need to defrost them enough to be able to chop before using them. Blackberries or raspberries are also amazing substitutes in this crisp.

Vanilla extract: if you don’t have any vanilla extract you can just omit this (it’s best not to substitute it with any other type of extract).

Sugar: I used unrefined cane sugar for this recipe as I prefer the taste of it. You can use any type of sugar you prefer, although I would steer clear of very dark brown sugar as the molasses will overpower the strawberry taste.

Butter: I use salted butter when baking sweet treats as I think it really helps bring out all the flavors better but you can use unsalted if you prefer and add a pinch of salt, or skip the salt altogether. If you’re vegan or have a dairy allergy you can use good-quality vegan butter instead.

Apples: I tend to use cheaper apples for crisps and crumbles and save the large juicy pricier ones for eating by themselves (or dipping in this Greek yogurt apple dip).

Nutmeg: This is fantastic with the fruit and I highly recommend using it but if you don’t have any you can just leave it out, or use cinnamon instead (although personally, I don’t enjoy strawberries paired with cinnamon, I know many people do).

Oats: I use old-fashioned oats as I prefer their slightly crunchier texture, but you can use quick-cooking oats (for a slightly softer finished texture) if you prefer. Don’t use steel-cut oats.

Flaked almonds: Again, great for texture and crunch, but you can omit them if you don’t have them, or substitute them with ground almonds or chopped walnuts.

Flour: Plain all-purpose flour is fine here. I don’t recommend using whole wheat flour.

Ground almonds: Add for more delicious almond flavor as they toast faster and get nice and crunchy. If you don’t have any, just add extra flaked almonds.

How to make it

Fruit crisp recipes are very easy to make but I’ve included some process photos below in case you need a quick overview of the necessary steps or are unsure of anything.

1. Peel and core the apples and thinly slice (not too thin – you don’t want them to dissolve). Hull and quarter the strawberries. Melt the four tablespoons of butter in a microwave (this should take about 20-30 seconds, watch the microwave and stop it once the butter has melted) and pour over. Add the fruit and melted butter to a large mixing bowl with the sugar and vanilla extract.
2. Gently mix (you don’t want to squash the strawberries) with a large spoon.
3. Add the fruit mix to a medium-sized casserole dish and pat down and flatten. I used a 9 x 13 inch standard rectangular one.
4. To another large bowl, add the flour and softened butter. If your butter was refrigerated and is hard, you’ll need to set it out for 30-45 minutes at room temperature before using.

5. Roughly combine the butter and flour with a fork until it forms large clumps.
6. Add the sugar, ground and flaked almonds, and nutmeg.
7. Combine with the fork until the mixture resembles granola.
8. Distribute the mix over the fruit until all the fruit is covered and the top layer is fairly even (don’t press it down). bake for 35-40 minutes in the middle of a preheated oven (375ºF/190ºC) – until golden. Set aside for ten minutes to cool and then enjoy warm by itself or with ice cream!

To test if the fruit filling is cooked, you should try (carefully! The filling is very hot!) some of the apple slices as they take the longest to cook. If not soft enough, return to the oven for ten-minute increments.

If you’re topping started to brown too much, you can cover it with aluminum foil to prevent burning. Ideally, you want your crisp topping to look the same as the image below in color, a light golden brown.

Equipment notes

What you’ll need:

• Two large mixing bowls.
• A paring knife.
• A sharp knife for chopping.
• Measuring cups and spoons or kitchen scales.
• A large spoon and fork for mixing.
• A regular rectangular casserole dish, 9 x 13 inches.

Expert tips

• Pack down and flatten the fruit filling, but not the crisp topping. Packing down the fruit prevents crisp from falling into the gaps and getting soggy. Packing down the topping will result in a very hard difficult-to-break-and-eat crust. Loosely sprinkling the crisp topping over will give you perfect results.
• To quickly soften butter that’s been in the fridge, fill a bowl with very hot water and leave for ten minutes to absorb the heat and then pour out the water. Now add the butter to the bowl and it should be soft enough to use in about three minutes.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

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