Barefoot Mon-tessa

Tonight was a night of baking. Fashionista is having a "Friendsgiving" party tomorrow night, and since I'm working tomorrow, I devoted tonight to baking my contribution to the festivities. With apron and newly purchased toys from Williams Sonoma, I became Moni Crocker for the evening.

I am sitting here in my apron, I am actually barefoot, Ina, and I'm smelling the beautiful apple crisp in the kitchen. Thank you for this recipe!

If you haven't tried the Barefoot Contessa's apple crisp, you must. Every Thanksgiving my family tries to add a new recipe to our "repertoire" so it's never too late for you to add this to yours. Apple pies, crumbles and crisps are some of my favorite desserts. I'm picky when it comes to apple anything, so I would not endorse this recipe lightly. It is by far the best apple crisp my family has ever encountered.

Old-Fashioned Apple Crisp, from Barefoot Contessa's Parties! by Ina Garten

5 pounds McIntosh or Macoun apples (My local grocery store did not have a scale and to my amazement, when I got to the cashier, she weighed my apples in at 4.99 pounds. Some things are meant to be!!)
Grated zest of 1 orange
Grated zest of 1 lemon
2 tbl freshly squeezed orange juice
2 tbl freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 c granulated sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg

For the topping:

1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup oatmeal (feel free to be generous with the oatmeal, and butter, for that matter, for that is the best part, after all)
1/2 pound cold unsalted butter, diced

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9 x 14 x 2 inch oval baking dish.

Peel, core, and cut the apples into large wedges. Combine the apples with the zests, juices, sugar, and spices. Pour into the dish.

To make the topping, combine the flour, sugars, salt, oatmeal, and cold butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until the mixture is crumbly and the butter is the size of peas. Scatter evenly over the apples. (I do not have an electric mixer and my makeshift hands-on approach with plastic bags over my hands so not to get greasy worked swell.)

Place the crisp on a sheet pan and bake for one hour (it always ends up being more than an hour, let's say an hour and fifteen minutes) until the top is brown and the apples are bubbly. Serve warm.

I took these pictures with my two-year-old Sony Ericsson, so please excuse the graininess. I think you can still get the idea.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

And don't worry, you will get the play-by-play of tomorrow night's "Friendsgiving" party. I can't wait to see the feast it turns into. I told Fashionista, like a friend's wedding where Polaroids were taken of all guests arriving at the reception, we should take pictures of each item of food as it arrives at her apartment.