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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Apple Brown Betty is the perfect option to use those fall apples, plus it’s easy enough that your kids can help! This recipe can be thrown together at the last minute, it’s so easy to make, but impressive at any gathering—the perfect fall dessert for a cold night!
Apple brown betty is probably not a particularly well-known dessert outside of North America, and the fact that it seems so similar to another dish, apple crisp, likely doesn’t help. It may be the simpler cousin of the similar desserts, but the difference is in the topping! An apple crisp features an oat topping, resulting in a crackly layer on top, whereas the apple brown betty provides a much more delicate and crunchy topping.
Don’t forget to make your own Apple Pie Spice for this recipe, and don’t forget to try my Apple Scones and Baked Apples as well!
Karlynn’s Recipe Notes
- Skill Level: With some basic ingredients and minimal effort, this is an easy dessert you can make with your kids.
- Total Time: From preparation to cook time, this recipe takes approximately 60 minutes.
- Variations: While apples are the classic choice, try experimenting with other fruits such as pears or peaches, or use a variety of apples to add depth to the flavour. Want a little extra crunch? Try layering in some pecans or walnuts!
- Tools for This Recipe: To make this recipe, you’ll need a 9×13 baking pan, a variety of mixing bowls (including a small and medium size), and you can optionally use a pastry cutter to cut the butter into the topping.
What You’ll Need For Ingredients
Apples, Sugar, Apple Pie Spice, Lemon Juice: There may not be an extensive ingredient list that makes up this filling, but what you’re left with is a delicious and comforting dessert. Karlynn’s Tip: Stick with classic cooking apples due to their more resilient texture. Granny Smith, Braeburn, and Honeycrisp all have the best possible flavour for this recipe and work best with the longer cooking time.
All-Purpose Flour, Brown Sugar, Salted Butter: This topping yields a finer, more delicate texture that remains quite crunchy compared to its apple crisp cousin. Karlynn’s Tip: Try using chilled butter to achieve an even, crumbly, and crunchy topping, as warm butter can cause it to flatten.
How To Make Apple Brown Betty
This is a quick overview of the recipe. The full list of ingredients & complete step-by-step instructions are in the recipe card below.
- Grease a 9×13 baking pan.
- Whisk together the sugar and apple pie spice in a small bowl.
- Place the prepared apples in a medium bowl and toss them with the sugar and apple pie spice.
- Turn out into the greased pan and sprinkle with lemon juice.
- In a medium bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, and butter until the mixture is crumbly.
- Sprinkle the mixture evenly over the top of the apples.
- Bake at 375ºF for 35-40 minutes, or until the apples are tender enough to pierce with a fork and the topping is crisp and golden brown.
- Cool slightly and serve with vanilla ice cream.
Karlynn’s Tips and Tricks for the Perfect Apple Brown Betty
- It’s All In The Apple: Choosing the right apple will make all the difference. While regular eating apples, such as Red Delicious or Fuji, are sweet to eat, they turn mealy and mushy when cooked. Cooking apples have a much more resilient texture and tend to be a lot more acidic. Because of this, although they’re not as tasty when eaten raw, they help balance out the flavour and mouthfeel while cooked in this recipe.
- Even Does It: When cutting your apples, aim for evenly sized pieces to ensure even baking. I recommend slicing your apples to about 1/4-inch thickness.
Storage Instructions
The absolute best way to experience this apple brown betty is fresh, especially since it’s simple to make!
Refrigerator: To store your leftovers in the fridge, cover them well or transfer to an airtight container and enjoy within 2-4 days to prevent them from becoming too soft.
Freezer: I don’t recommend freezing this dessert, as thawing would result in it becoming much mushier than desired.
More Delicious Dessert Recipes
- Blueberry Buckle: This is the perfect coffee cake, filled with blueberries and a crunchy cinnamon sugar topping!
- Cinnamon Spice Upside-Down Apple Cake: This delicious upside-down apple cake features a decadent brown sugar, caramel, and cinnamon apple topping.
- Lemon Cherry Crunch Cake. This 4-ingredient cake is crazy easy and crazy delicious!
There you have it! An easy and delicious way to use up those fall apples!
Let me know how yours turns out in the comments below. You know I always love hearing about your baking adventures!
Happy Baking!
Karlynn
Apple Brown Betty
Ingredients
Apple Filling
- 6 cups tart apples, peeled and sliced
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon apple pie spice
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
Topping
- 1¼ cups all purpose flour
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup salted butter
Bread Crumb Option
- ½ cup breadcrumbs, see notes for substituting
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 375 °F. Grease a 9×13 baking pan and set aside.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the granulated sugar and the apple pie spice.
- Place the prepared apples in a medium bowl then toss with the sugar and the apple pie spice. Turn out into the prepared pan, then sprinkle the lemon juice on top.
- In a medium bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar and butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over top of the apples in an even layer, patting it down lightly.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 35-40 minutes until the apples are soft enough to pierce with a fork and the topping is crisp and golden brown.
- Remove and let sit for 10 minutes, then scoop into bowls and serve with vanilla ice cream.
Notes
- You can sub out 1/2 cup of the flour and replace with breadcrumbs for a different version of apple brown betty!
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Jill says
Not sure why you would post a recipe on someone’s food blog. Also insulting it by saying yours is more authentic. Wow.
RedMtl says
Here is the Original Apple Crisp recipe, No. 20, from B. C. Tree Fruits Limited, Kelowna, B. C. — and this is the only way I’ve ever known apple crisp. The version with oats is, to me, American — and dreadful tasting — but this original version is no longer listed at B.C. Fruits on their webpage. I make a larger version of this original recipe, but I still have the pale blue tissue paper with the recipe on it, that was acquired by my grandmother nearly 100 years ago.
6 medium size B.C. apples
1/3 granulated sugar
Cinnamon
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
Peel the apples and slice into a buttered baking dish. Sprinkle with the granulated sugar and cinnamon. Combine the butter, flour and brown sugar, and spread mixture on top of the apples. Bake about 30 minutes in a moderate oven (350 deg. F.) until apples are soft and top is a golden brown. Serves 6.
The version I make has more of everything, but no difference in the ingredients. And, certainly no oats!
RedMtl says
Don’t seem to be able to edit my own input, so will add a “reply” to myself instead. As you can see from the old B. C. Tree Fruits Limited recipe, this “Brown Betty” is an apple crisp of olden years.
First, a correction: should read 1/3 cup granulated sugar. The word “cup” went missing.
Second, a comment on the apples. Yes, a tart apple is better, for sure. When I cook with apples, I use exclusively MacIntosh (or, McIntosh, or Mackintosh — I’ve seen all those spellings over the decades). I use them precisely because they are tart and also soften to a mushy state when cooked. If there is one thing I do not like, it is crunchy apples in a cooked dish — and I also cut smaller than shown above, to aid in the softening process while cooking. I note someone else has commented similarly below about under-cooked apples in pies — something of a pet peeve of mine, too.
Unfortunately MacIntosh are becoming very, very hard to get, as farmers are stopping production of them saying nobody wants them any more. Seems to be a self-fulfilling end result, if they don’t provide them, we can’t buy them.
Third, a comment on what I actually do. Adding some flour (instant blending flour is useful in this case, just a sprinkle tossed onto the apples) along with the sugar will help make a more syrupy consistency. I also add some brown sugar to the apples directly, not all white granulated sugar. I bake it until it bubbles up over the sugar/flour/butter topping at the edges, as well, meaning it is really well cooked and soft. I start it at 400 degrees, then lower it to 350 after about 12 minutes. I also put butter dotted in with the apples, and use some brown sugar. And, I press the topping in tightly, not loosely resting on the apples, especially at the edges where it meets the baking pan.
As my original posting noted, I make a much bigger quantity as well. It is important to “grease” the dish, which is mentioned in Ms. Johnston’s recipe, and for that I also use only butter. And, I do not use a 9 x 13 pan as mentioned, simply because it is way too shallow — most are only 2 1/2 inches deep. I use at a minimum a loaf pan (takes a good 8-10 apples), and sometimes a square Corning-ware dish that is at least four or five inches deep, and fill it almost full with apples before pressing on the topping.
It is just my way, of course, but it is a variation that works well, and makes lovely thick dish. It is, essentially, the same recipe as Ms. Johnston’s, which is quite similar to the B. C. Tree one, but tweaked to make a thicker, dish, with more apples in ratio to the topping, and using apples that will not remain in hard chunks.
Annie says
The recipe did not call for oats. Apple Brown Betty is different than Apple Crisp.
goody says
The biggest problem with this recipe is it seems that the bottom of the pan is very liquidy; shouldn’t the apples cook until they are nice and soft, thus making a thick syrup rather than a watery one? I bought an apple pie from Costco one year, and when I got it home, it was basically still raw; it was a baked pie, but the apples were really not baked; I like my apples to be really well cooked, I mean, if I want a raw apple I will just eat one.
Judy L says
I’m enjoying trying out your recipes. I have a recipe for Apple Brown Betty that’s probably more authentic than this one. I found this recipe in a 30-page pamphlet from the food editor of the Detroit Free Press over 50 years ago. It came in a Welcome Wagon basket delivered to my front door when we moved into a new neighborhood in Detroit.
I’ll bet I haven’t made this recipe since we moved to Houston in the early 70’s. I marked it with a star and the page has plenty of cooking stains on it, so I must have made it often!
Apple Brown Betty
1/3 c melted butter or margarine
2 c fresh bread crumbs
6 c sliced, pared cooking apples
1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 t nutmeg
1/4 t cinnamon
1 T grated lemon rind
2 T lemon juice
1/4 c water
1- Toss melted butter with bread crumbs; arrange one-third in a greased one and one-half quart casserole; cover with half the apples and half the combined sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, and lemon rind.
2- Add another one-third of the crumbs, the remaining apples and remaining sugar mixture; spoon on combined lemon juice and water and top with remaining crumbs.
3-Cover and bake in a 375-degree oven 30 minutes; uncover and bake 30 minutes longer or until the apples are done; serve warm with cream, whipped cream, cream cheese softened with a little milk or ice cream.
Serves six.
Exactly as written! I think I’ll make it again tonight, it’s been a long time. I hope you’ll try it, too.