A little taste of fall

I owe my sister a huge thank you for this one, and you will too after you try it out. On her recommendation I bought four fall-colored ramekins from Target this week. Also on her recommendation, I christened them by baking individual apple crisps in each one.

Basically, fall in a delicious bowl. You can see why I love it. Not only was it delicious (and impressive if you're having guests over), it was super simple to put together and it can bake while you're eating dinner. Too easy!

The recipe she sent me from the Food Network is below, I improvised a tiny bit and didn't use pecans and I also didn't broil it at the end, as suggested. Try it out and you'll be thanking my sister too.

What You Need

2/3 cup of rolled oats

1/3 cup of all-purpose flour

1/3 cup of brown sugar

1/3 cup of pecans, toasted and chopped (optional)

Pinch of salt

6 tablespoons of cold butter, chopped into bits

4 medium baking apples (Golden Delicious, Rome, etc. - there's a handy apple chart at the grocery store you can use)

Vanilla ice cream (optional, but highly recommended)

Caramel sauce (also optional, but also highly recommended)

How You Make It

-Preheat the oven to 375

-Lightly butter your six (or four) ramekins

-Whisk the oats, flour, brown sugar, pecans and salt in a medium bowl

-Rub in the butter with your fingertips until it's evenly distributed, in pea-size pieces

-Peel, core and coarsely chop the apples and divide them between your ramekins

-Scatter the crisp topping over the fruit in each ramekin evenly

-Place the ramekins on a baking sheet and cook until fruit bubbles around the sides and the top is golden  (about 30 minutes)

-If you decide to broil: Preheat the broiler and place the ramekins four inches underneath the broiler until the tops are golden brown (about 30 seconds)

-Top with whipped cream or ice cream and caramel sauce and serve!