This easy apple crisp is the best recipe you'll ever eat! With its rich topping and no oats plus a secret ingredient, you'll never make another apple crisp recipe again!
Over the years, I've posted quite a few different apple crisp recipes.
I always have to dig through all of them in order to find this particular one.
This one is, by far, my favorite, coming out perfectly every single time I make it. In fact, I've completely stopped using my other recipes; this one is just too good.
I've made this crisp with pears, with peaches, and with apples, and it's always perfect and delicious. The crisp topping is rich and creamy without being too moist, and the fruit underneath makes a sweet syrup while baking.
This year, we picked ten pounds of sour cherries at the local orchard and made cherry crisp with this recipe. That's my favorite, I think, because the cherries are slightly tart even after you cook them, combined with the sweetness of the cake-y topping makes a phenomenal dessert.
I was a Pampered Chef Kitchen Consultant for a couple of years immediately after moving out of my parents' house. It was The Pampered Chef that taught me to cook.
This recipe comes from my old PC days, although I have made a few modifications over the years. The current iteration is my favorite, of course, and I can bet it will be your favorite too.
How to make the very best apple crisp with no oats
- Prepare the apples. Peel, core, and slice 5-7 large apples. Arrange in a 9x9 or similarly sized round baking dish. Sprinkle with cinnamon.
- Prepare the crumb topping. In a medium bowl, combine the melted butter, chopped nuts, cake mix, sugar, and remaining cinnamon. Mix well, until crumbly. Sprinkle evenly over the apples.
- Bake. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes or until the topping is beginning to get crispy.
- Serve. We like our apple crisp served hot with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
A few notes:
- Grace currently has braces and thus cannot eat nuts, so we have to leave them out right now. It's a bummer because I love them.
- If you need a gluten-free recipe, you can easily use a gluten-free cake mix and it should come out just fine.
- As I said above, this recipe works beautifully with any kind of fruit. Just fill your pan about ½ way with the uncooked fruit of your choice and top with the crisp topping. Cook until the topping is golden brown and starting to get crispy.
- Use the cinnamon only if your fruit choice makes sense with it. I use cinnamon or apple pie spice with apples of course, but I also use one or the other with pears. I do not use any spices with peaches, and I use sprinkle a teaspoon or so of almond extract over my cherries.
The Best Apple Crisp Recipe You'll Ever Eat - Quick & Easy Dessert
Equipment
Ingredients
- 5-7 large apples peeled, cored, and sliced
- ½ cups butter melted
- ½ cups pecans or walnuts chopped
- 1 box yellow cake mix
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon Cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice divided
Instructions
- Arrange apples in a 9x9 or similarly sized round baking dish. (I like to make this in a round dish.) Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of cinnamon over apples.
- In a medium bowl, combine butter, nuts, cake mix, sugar, and remaining cinnamon. Mix well, until crumbly. Sprinkle evenly over the apples.
- Bake at 350 for 40 minutes or until crumb is golden brown.
Notes
- Grace currently has braces and thus cannot eat nuts, so we have to leave them out right now. It's a bummer because I love them.
- If you need a gluten-free recipe, you can easily use a gluten-free cake mix and it will come out just fine.
- As I said above, this recipe works beautifully with any kind of fruit. Just fill your pan about ½ way with the uncooked fruit of your choice and top with the crisp topping. Cook until the topping is golden brown and starting to get crispy.
- Use the cinnamon only if your fruit choice makes sense with it. I use cinnamon or apple pie spice with apples of course, but I also use one or the other with pears. I do not use any spices with peaches, and I use sprinkle a teaspoon or so of almond extract over my cherries.
Anonymous says
oh my goodness... this sounds just heavenly! {I can smell it now!} I'm a new reader... nice to "meet" you!
Robyn says
I will be making this IMMEDIATELY. What kind(s) of apples do you recommend?
Anonymous says
Whatever you like will work. We got some Johnny Crisp apples at Strite's that were simply divine in it, but really, I've never made a batch that I didn't like. Softer apples almost turn to applesauce when you cook them. Crisper apples hold their shape a bit better. Aside from that, use whatever apples you have. Even a combination will work well, as long as you mix them up when you put them in the pan.
Whitney Wingerd -MWS says
Tara, this sounds v. yummy - may have to try it, thanks for posting!
Daria says
I have mine in the oven right now. It took less than 10minutes to put together from start to finish. SUPER EASY!! I'll let you know how it turns out... but it smells divine, so I'm sure will be great!
Lanahowell says
Ok adding the cake mix is new to me but sounds soooo good! I LOVE apple crisps. I will be making this for sure. Thanks Tara! hope you are well. I've been soo bad about blogging lately, I'm hoping to catch up on everyones blogs soon.
Anonymous says
You have a great excuse! How's that baby doing these days?
Ann Kroeker says
The WHOLE cake mix? Really? Okay, I'm game. I mean...who doesn't love cake mix?
Anonymous says
Yep, the whole thing. 🙂
Anonymous says
Yep, the whole thing. 🙂
Ann Kroeker says
The WHOLE cake mix? Really? Okay, I'm game. I mean...who doesn't love cake mix?
Miz Helen says
I love anything Apple this time of the year. Your recipe for Apple Crisp looks great.
Thank you for sharing.
Jenny says
I didn’t have any yellow cake mix on hand so I used a vanilla cake mix and then put some brown sugar on top at the end before baking and it was TO DIE FOR. The addition of brown sugar sprinkled on top made it crispy and amazing.