I love pumpkin and pumpkin-spice everything. But for me, the real star of fall is the apple. Sure, you can get apples year round, but they are at their best right from the orchard in the fall here in the Midwest.
Sweet and tangy. Crisp and juicy. I mean, what’s not to like?
Throw in a trip to the orchard with some of your friends to pick some of your own, and apples are pretty much the best ever.
I can’t resist a bag full of my favorite fruit – my willpower is so poor that I came home with 10 pounds of Pink Lady apples. You know, to feed the gnomes I have hidden in the closet.
With a kitchen that is too small to make and can apple sauce or apple pie filling and a decidedly smaller number of gnomes to eat my food than I had thought, I had to get creative with how I used up those apples. One of my favorite easy desserts is apple crisp. I can whip one up without a recipe and can make it in any size from single serve to crowd-sized.
This time, I wanted to do something special. (And I wanted to do it in a way that didn’t involve a dessert for a crowd).
So, dear reader, meet my Ginger & Whiskey 1-Apple Crisp.
The whiskey is millet whiskey* from a local distillery along with some fresh ginger to spice things up.
To make this truly gluten-free, you need to make sure your oats are certified. Gluten-free oats are available from a variety of sources – recently I found some from Chex at the local super market, but they are available from Bob’s Red Mill as well. You could also use quinoa flakes if you are allergic to oats.
- 1 large apple (or 2 small apples), tart baking apples such as Pink Ladies or Granny Smith are ideal, but any apple will work
- 2 tablespoons whiskey*
- 1/2 teaspoon grated fresh ginger, divided
- 3 tablespoons butter, very soft or melted
- 1 cup gluten-free oats
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/8 tsp salt
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit.
- Slice apple into even slices – I leave the skin on, but you can peel the apples if you want.
- In an oven-safe bowl or 5-6inch baking dish, toss the apple, the whiskey and half the ginger.
- If your butter is fresh from the fridge, go ahead and put it in the microwave for 20 seconds. It’s ok if it melts.
- In a medium bowl, combine the remaining ginger, butter, oats, brown sugar and salt. I use my hands to mush it together.
- Crumble the topping over the apple slices in your bowl or baking dish.
- Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until the apples are soft and the topping is golden brown.
*Gluten doesn’t survive distillation, so any whiskey that doesn’t have added colors or flavors should be safe on a gluten-free diet. It’s proven science. However, some people are sensitive to other parts of the grain that do survive distillation, so please don’t use it if it bothers you. The millet whiskey I used can be found online and through high-end liquor stores. You can always leave out the whiskey or replace it with a dark or spiced rum.
This is not a sponsored post, and I did not receive any free items to cook with. Koval is a distillery that happens to be in my neighborhood and they make an awesome whiskey from Millet. The Chex Gluten-free Oats were the ones I just happened to have in my pantry.
I have an old friend who, while we were in fashion school (what were we thinking?), would tell me “Button down, hang up!” whenever she saw my closet, which was really just a pile of clothes that didn’t fit on the maybe 2 feet of closet rod space.