Fruit trees are supposed to be one of those gifts that keep on giving. At least in theory, you plant them once, and each year nature presents you with a bounty of plump, ripe fruit, right there in your very own backyard.
In practice, however, fruit trees can be uncooperative. Diseases and insects love them, which means that people who have their hearts set on a crop each year often end up doting on their trees, obsessively nudging them along in hopes of getting a harvest.
Such is the case with apples. Serious apple growers fret over the blossoms during cold snaps in spring, as if this will somehow hold frost at bay, and then later in the season, they spray and prune while performing impressive balancing tricks on teetering ladders.
Not at my house. My husband and I are what you might call laissez faire fruit growers. We are the opposite of the spray-and-prune types. We plant the trees, and if the deer don't plow them down or strip the bark off them, we might wind up with a crop, eventually. We have never trimmed our apple trees or squirted a single poison on them. Webworms and apple scab draw a big yawn from us.
So with this attitude, we should not be surprised that it has taken us 11 years to get a really good crop off our apple trees. It has been so long since we planted them that we have sort of forgotten what varieties they are. We've been picking grocery bags full of a slightly tart green apple for a couple of weeks and are now getting a good crop of a sweeter variety, which appears to be a greenish apple with a pink blush.
In any case, it's time to do some baking - 11 years' worth. This recipe, from Nicole Routhier's "Fruit Cookbook," may be the world's easiest baked dessert recipe.
Harvest Apple Crumble
Filling
6 medium Granny Smith apples (about 1 1/2 pounds total)
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Topping
3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, chilled
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Butter a 2-quart baking dish. To make the filling, peel, core and cut the apples into 1/2-inch pieces and place them in a large saucepan with the sugar, cinnamon and lemon juice. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes, or until the apples are just tender. Spoon into the prepared baking dish.
To make the topping, combine the flour and the remaining 1/4 cup sugar in a small bowl. With a pastry cutter or two table knives, cut in the butter until the mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle over the apples.
Bake until the topping is golden brown, about 30 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool slightly. Serve warm. Makes 6 to 8 servings.
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