Oat Crisp Baked Apples
It’s fall here y’all and nothing makes my heart sing more than apple desserts. These Oat Crisp Baked Apples are perfection. Salty Oats, almond flour and spices cook together over juicy apple halves. Then they get topped with the royal treatment of vanilla bean ice cream and caramel sauce. It tastes heavenly and smells even more spectacular while it’s baking.
In fall I feel like most people fall into two categories…pumpkin or apple. I’m a team apple girl myself. I don’t dislike pumpkin but I’m not running out to make everything taste like pumpkin either. I enjoy apples and everything that goes along with them. Apple picking, apple cider doughnuts, homemade apple sauce, the list goes on and on. These Oat Crisp Baked Apples are my new addition to that list.
I decided to switch things up and try Chinese Five Spice in the spice mixture along with cinnamon. Chinese Five Spice is a blend of, you guessed it, five spices. The mixture can vary, but generally it’s a blend of cinnamon, cloves, fennel, star anise, and Szechwan peppercorns. It’s got that characteristic spiced smell with a bit of heat from the peppercorns and it works incredibly well in this recipe. Now if you don’t want to go out and buy Chinese Five Spice (it’s readily available at most grocery stores with the rest of the spices) you can substitute in more cinnamon instead.
I use my food processor to grind up the spice mixture. It combines the oats, almond flour and butter incredible well. Process it just for a bit and it will come together quickly. I love using my Cuisinart 13 Cup Food Processor for a multitude of things and can’t recommend it highly enough. Here’s the Amazon link: https://amzn.to/2yEdbPb
I halved the apples and cut a little tiny slice off so that they would sit upright in the pan and bake. I cored the centers out with a teaspoon. Then filled the small cavity with the crisp mixture and mounded the rest on top.
I made this Oat Crisp Baked Apples as a more traditional apple crisp as well. Instead of cutting the apples in half and coring them simply cube them up and spread them in the bottom of a deep pie dish. Then sprinkle the oats crisp mixture on top and bake for the same amount of time. Also serve with ice cream and topped with caramel sauce.
Oat Crisp Baked Apples
Ingredients
- 3 medium tart apples I use honey crisp or Granny Smith
- 1/2 C old fashioned oats
- 1/2 C almond flour
- 1/2 C brown sugar
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp Chinese five spice
- 3 tbsp unsalted butter
- pinch of salt
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- vanilla bean ice cream for serving
- caramel ice cream sauce for serving
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
- Cut the apples in half, then slice a small piece off the bottom of the side with the apple peel still on it. This will help the apples to sit upright in the pan while baking.
- Core out the seeds with a small teaspoon.
- In a food processor fitted with a blade pulse the oats, almond flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, Chinese five spice, salt, vanilla and butter until just blended together. Maybe 5-8 pulses.
- Remove the blade.
- Place the six apple halves in a baking dish with the cut side facing up. Divide the oat mixture equally between the six apple halves. Mounding the mixture on top.
- Bake the apples for 30 minutes.
- Serve warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and drizzle of caramel sauce.
