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Almond Bourbon Ginger Apple Crisp
by Cecilia Tan

Here’s another “what to do with seasonal harvest ingredients” recipe. This one is the result of me trying to find a recipe for a cooked apple dessert that I would actually like. I don’t like cooked apple desserts very much, and I only like some varieties of raw apples a little–and corwin likes neither but he’ll deign to eat a dessert if I make one. We get apples in our farm share, though, so it’s important to experiment in order to use everything up and prevent waste.

There are two main objections people seem to have to cooked apples: texture and flavor.

The flavor I dislike is the one that reminds me too much of the apple juice in a plastic cup with a foil top that we were forced to drink as kids in grade school. I’m also really not fond of grocery store apple sauce. Blecch. That sort of apple-y flavor is also one of the things I hate about some chardonnays and champagnes. Gack.

The textures I dislike are either rubbery or mealy. When the apples are at all rubbery it makes everything around them seem slimier. Ick.

The first attack on the flavor problem was simple: use the farm share apples (macoun or honey crisp?) and not grocery store apples.

The second was add a lot of complementary flavor profiles that I like: fresh grated nutmeg, fresh ginger, bourbon, ginger liqueur, vanilla, and toasted almond did the trick.

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