Weight Friendly Heirloom Apple Crisp

Where I live in upstate New York is in apple growing country, and some of the apples grown here are heirloom varieties.

This is a rerun of several years ago (except for the photos) and an apple crisp perfect for a weight-watching Thanksgiving.

There is a farm near Ithaca, New York, that specializes in heirloom apples.  At least once a year, we visit their booth at the Ithaca Farmers Market to pick up some unusual varieties.

Ithaca, New York farmers market 2018

This was not the best apple year, due to above normal rains, but we were able to pick up some nice apples (even on their side, which this picture seems to want to do).

Frog Pond, Bainbridge, NY 2018

But even in our local apple stores in the Binghamton area, we can purchase heirlooms such as Northern Spy, a wonderful baking apple.

There are many more apple varieties than you can find in your average supermarket.  Many of the older varieties don't ship well, or don't keep well, or don't bear reliably year after year.  But if you can find them, they are worth the effort.

When you do buy an apple, you must ask yourself:  How do you intend to use your apple?

Fresh eating? (my favorites are Honey Crisp, Autumn Crisp, and some of the eating heirlooms, especially the russets.)

Baking? (my favorite is Northern Spy but you can also try Rome and Cortland.)  And, Honey Crisps can be used in baking.

Tart Eating?  Empire is your pick. It used to be my favorite apple.

I, personally, am not a fan of Red Delicious or MacIntosh, but they have their fans.

Which brings me to one of my favorite desserts, apple crisp.  I've published a couple of different Weight Watchers friendly apple crisp recipes.  Here is one. 

I decided to experiment with adding frozen blueberries (which I picked from a U Pick farm in August).  At times, I've also put pears and/or blackberries into my apple crisps.  Yesterday, I decided to make an apple crisp with what I had on hand -  frozen blueberries.

Sorry for my friends outside the United States - you'll have to do your own conversions into metric, oven temperatures, etc.

20 ounce apple and leaves from my yard from a previous year

Fruit Crisp (9 inch square pan, serves 9)

2 pounds baking apples

4 tbsp brown sugar (you can also use 1 tbsp sucralose as an alternative)

2 tsp lemon juice

1 cup frozen blueberries (I didn't thaw them)

Peel and slice cored apples. Mix all ingredients together.  Place in a 9 inch square baking dish that has been oiled or buttered.


Top with topping.  Keep in mind this is an adaptation of a low-cal topping.  It may not suit you.

Topping

1 cup quick oats
4 tbsp brown sugar
4 tbsp light butter
1/2 tsp freshly ground allspice
1 tsp vanilla extract

Mix topping together and top.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 50 minutes or until the apple slices are the consistency you want.  Let cool, unless you can't wait to eat it.

How did it do? The blueberries dyed the apples nearby purple, but it tasted good.  The topping was "OK" (I'm still experimenting with getting these lower calorie toppings moist.) I think this would be amazing with Northern Spy apples, and I plan to make this for Thanksgiving (November 22) this year.

Do you like apple crisp?