Dessert First (Apple Crisp)

I used the last of the golden delicious apples from our tree to toss together an apple crisp today. Crisp is one of the easiest comfort foods I know and there is something so gratifying about watching fruit fall into the baking dish rather than on the ground. Some of the apples were still crisp and crunchy, while others had crystallized sugar spots in their middle and were beginning to soften. But when tossed together and baked in the solar even, all the hard edges and soft spots commingle in the warm, melting rays of the sun.

To make the crisp, I very loosely based my recipe on Loraine Anderson and Rick Palkovic's fruit crisp recipe in "Cooking with Sunshine" (1994, Random House). I cored the apples, throwing the discarded pieces into the chicken feed pile, and then cut thick slices of apple. I placed the apples in a pyrex baking dish and then squeezed lemon juice and drizzled about a little more than a tablespoon of organic brown rice syrup over them. My favorite thing about making apple crisp, other than eating it of course, is tossing ingredients together with my bare (and freshly washed) hands.

The filling done, I turned to the crisp part of the recipe. I poured about 1.5 cups of rolled oats in a bowl with about 1/2 cup raw coconut crystals (a great alternative to the traditional brown sugar), 1/2 cup spelt flour, 1 tablespoon of cinnamon and a generous soaking of safflower oil. Again using my hands, I tossed the ingredients making sure to incorporate all the dry ingredients into the oil. I distributed this over the top of the apples, along with a sprinkling of nutmeg for good measure.

On this warm, fall day it only took the solar oven about 15 minutes to heat up to 300 degrees - the same amount of time it took me to make the apple crisp and nurse my baby back to sleep. Now it sits, basking in the sun, softening and sweetening into dessert for tonight and breakfast first thing in the morn.

The Result: The crisp came out well. I really liked the light sweetness provided by the brown rice syrup and raw coconut crystals. The apple layer was a bit on the thin side, but the crust came out nice and browned. It was yummy for breakfast with yogurt and fresh blueberries.