45-Minute Apple Crumble (or, What to Make When the Community Potluck is in an Hour)*

*But is later canceled for unknown reasons. More cobbler for us!

Ingredients

For the apples

6-8 large apples

4 tablespoons cinnamon (approximately)

½ cup sugar (ish)

3-4 cups of water

For the crumble topping        

1 cup flour

1 cup oats

1 1/3  cup brown sugar

½ cup butter

1 tbsp cinnamon

Preset the oven to 325. Cored and slice the apples (no need to peel—you’re in a rush here!) Check for stickers and seeds, and toss into a large saucepan. Add sugar and about 4 tablespoons cinnamon and toss to coat. Add water and set heat on high; stir occasionally.  Pluck out errant apple stickers as needed. The kitchen / house / surrounding area should start to smell amazing.

In a medium bowl, combine the dry ingredients and stir well. Cut in the butter—a pastry cutter would be ideal, but in a pinch you can do it with your clean hands. We were in a pinch since our kitchen is very oddly equipped, and is missing things like cutting boards and mixing bowls. Combine until the mixture has a sandy texture, and spread on a cookie sheet. Bake for about 15 minutes at 325, checking for burning and stirring occasionally.

By this point, the apples should be soft and fragrant with cinnamon, and most of the water should have boiled away. Take them off the heat and allow the remaining liquid to set up into a (delicious, sticky-sweet, apple cinnamon) sauce.

Add apples to container and top with crisp. Ideally, serve warm with vanilla ice cream. Non-ideally, drive in the pouring rain to a random community building, carry the dish around for a while looking for the potluck, give up, drive home, and then eat it anyway.