FOR A SPECTACULAR variation on apple crisp, add raspberries. The resulting mix of flavors is complex and superb, as both fruits combine sweet and tart characteristics that mesh well together. The red-and-green apple skins and red, seeded raspberries add color and texture to this tantalizing dessert.
Apple Raspberry Crisp is easy to make, too. All it takes is a generous cupful of fresh raspberries added to your favorite recipe for apple crisp.
Our favorite recipe was handed down from Lois Castell Browne to her granddaughter, Bar Lois Weeks, executive director of the New England Apple Association. Bar’s only change is to use whole wheat flour in the topping to make it a little healthier than the original. The recipe is included in America’s Apple, a book by Russell Steven Powell about how apples are grown and sold in the United States (Bar took the photographs).
Fresh, locally grown fall-bearing raspberries should be widely available until frost, but if you are unable to find any, you can substitute frozen berries.
Honeycrisp is a good choice for apple crisp, particularly when mixed with a McIntosh or two or some other New England apple that has a little more tartness.
Honeycrisp are excellent eaten fresh, too, and they are now ripening at many New England orchards. Visit the Orchard Finder at our website, newenglandapples.lndo.site, to find your favorite farm, and call ahead to find out what varieties are available for picking.
Watch this one-minute video to learn more about Honeycrisp’s history and characteristics:
Apple Raspberry Crisp
Filling
6 New England apples such as Honeycrisp or McIntosh, or a mix
1½ c fresh or frozen raspberries
1 T lemon juice
1 t cinnamon
½ t salt
¼ t nutmeg
Topping
¾ c whole wheat flour
¼ c old-fashioned oats
¼ c brown sugar or maple syrup
5 T butter
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter a three-quart baking dish.
Core and slice apples and place in baking dish. Sprinkle lemon juice, cinnamon, salt, and nutmeg over apples. Add raspberries, and set aside.
In medium bowl, use a pastry cutter to blend whole wheat flour, oats, brown sugar and butter until butter pieces are the size of peas or smaller. Sprinkle evenly over filling.
Bake for about 50 minutes, until apples are soft.
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THE BIG E (aka The Eastern States Exposition) starts Friday, and once again we will be there with a booth for New England apples in the Massachusetts Building. We’ll have fresh apples from a number of Massachusetts orchards during the 17-day fair, which ends Sunday, September 30.
We will also have fresh cider, slushies, and apple smoothies, and plenty of baked goods, including single-serving apple pies, apple crisp, cider donuts, and new this year, apple handpies and whole 8-inch apple pies.
This annual agricultural extravaganza is not to be missed by apple lovers, gastronomes, or simply the curious. We’ll begin the fair with at least five varieties of apples: McIntosh from Brookfield Orchards, Gala from Carlson Orchards, RubyMac from Nestrovich Fruit Farm, and Paula Red and Red Gravenstein from Red Apple Farm.
There will be many more as the season unfolds over the course of the fair.
Building hours are 10 a.m. to 9 a.m. daily. Bring your apple stories, ideas, questions, and appetite. We hope to see you there!