Apple Crisp with Cinnamon Ice Cream

Exciting news, as most of you probably know, the United States of America has elected Barack Obama to be the next president!! We stayed up late last night watching the results. What an exciting election!! We are looking forward to having Obama as our leader.

Yesterday I shared my pumpkin cake recipe, if you aren't satisfied with having that for Thanksgiving dessert, give this one a try: apple crisp with cinnamon ice cream! I love apple desserts and the topping on this crisp is most excellent. I used Granny Smith and Fuji apples because they are my favorite, but use whatever variety you like. I am sure Honeycrisp would be fabulous!! The topping has the perfect texture, nice and crispy, with loads of cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar, and of course the butter helps with the flavor too!

The crisp is great standing alone but why not give it a friend??? I made David Lebovitz's Cinnamon Ice Cream and it was the perfect companion for the apple crisp. The cinnamon flavor wasn't overpowering. It tasted phenomenal melting over the warm apple crisp! I recommend you making the ice cream to go with!

Apple Crisp

Topping: 12 Tablespoons all purpose flour ½ cup packed light brown sugar ½ cup sugar 1 teaspoon cinnamon ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg ½ teaspoon salt 10 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces 1 cup old fashion oats

Filling: 5 Granny Smith apples 5 Fuji apples Juice from one lemon ¼ cup sugar Extra cinnamon for sprinkling

For the topping:

Place flour, sugars, spices, salt in a food processor and pulse to combine. Add the butter and pulse ten times, about four seconds for each pulse. The mixture will look like dry sand at first, then it will have large lumps of butter, then like course corn meal.

Remove from the food processor and pour into a bowl. Stir in the oats until well mixed. Refrigerate the topping for at least 15 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

For the Filling:

Peel, quarter, and cute the apples into one inch chunks. You should have about six cups.

Toss the apples with the lemon juice, sugar, and sprinkle them with extra cinnamon if you wish. Scrape the fruit mixture into a 9 by 13 baking dish.

Distribute the topping evenly over the apples. Bake for 45 minutes or until the fruit is bubbling and the topping turns deep golden brown. Make sure the apples are tender. Serve warm and with ice cream!

Cinnamon Ice Cream

Adapted from The Perfect Scoop

1 cup whole milk ¾ cup sugar Pinch of salt 10 cinnamon sticks, broken up 2 cups heavy cream 5 large egg yolks

Warm the milk, sugar, salt, cinnamon sticks and 1 cup of cream in a medium saucepan. Once warm, cover, remove from heat, and let steep at room temperature for one hour.

Rewarm the cinnamon milk mixture. Remove the sticks with a slotted spoon and discard them. Pour the remaining cup of cream into a large bowl and set a mesh strainer on top.

In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. Slowly pour the warm mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then put the egg yolk mixture back into the pan.

Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula or wooden spoon. Scraping the bottom as you stir. Stir until the mixture is thick and coats the back of the spoon. About ten minutes. Pour the custard through the strainer and into the cream.

Chill mixture overnight and then freeze in an ice cream maker, using the manufacturer's instructions.

Josh had a sampler of all of the desserts!! He couldn't decide on just one!