Five Minute Single Serving Apple Crisp Recipe

comment icon 162 more comments Today these apples are coated in cinnamon sugar and conveniently topped with a healthy, wholesome crumble that is made with oats, pecans, whole wheat flour, and coconut oil. I don’t even like coconut oil. Except now I do (see also: this mind-blowing Blueberry Crisp!). FLIPPING OUT. Five minutes to snacky apple deliciousness = five minutes to happiness in my house. I say house, but ohhh hi again. We’re still living in the basement. I wish we had an awesome video update for you this week – something like me knocking down (ahem, poking holes in) a wall or something – but the most exciting kitchen event this week was yesterday afternoon when the plumbing company dropped off the sink so it could sit in a cardboard box for another week. Countertop fairies, please sprinkle your speedy fast dust on our fabricators. Annnnd you know you’re an adult when: you talk about countertop fabricators in normal conversation. Hi, Mom!

HOW TO MAKE OUR QUICK APPLE CRISP:

As you might recall, in the basement we are lacking that one magical food box called the oven. Sad face times one thousand. I miss it a lot. And I’m already dreaming of baked everything when the new oven comes in next week – T minus eight days, not that I’m literally counting days and hours and minutes or anything. Just get your party pants ready. But the big, exciting news today is that I STILL MADE THIS WITHOUT AN OVEN. This five minute single serving apple crisp is a minimal commitment, low maintenance, ready super fast treat for all the Regular Days. And you probably already went there in your mind, but just in case you need some help, this super speedy apple crisp can serve as a snack, dessert, or breakfast –> I just said that. Lezz break it down.

Five Minute: Yes. These adorable minis are whipped up in two minutes and baked in three. And when I say baked, I mean more like gently warmed in the microwave. You guys. Mixed feelings. I don’t love microwaves. I sort of loved the purist approach we took in the Philippines when we chose not to have a microwave for a year. And purist is interchangeable with cheapskate. But seriously, I had always sort of hoped that there would be a time in my life when I wouldn’t have a microwave and CHECK! We took care of that one. Now we temporarily don’t have an oven, and as much as I dislike the idea of every warm thing I’m eating coming out of that black zapper box (it’s just one of those thingssss), it’s super super convenient and we would be sad and hungry without it. The microwave gives us the moment of crumbly bliss that is these five minute mini single serving apple crisps, and for that we say Major Thank You, Microwave.

Single Serving: So I wrote the recipe to be enough for two servings, which sort of makes the title of single serving a little white lie, but here’s my rationale – if I was going to make this for a snack for one person (meeee) I might as well just make two of them so I could eat the second one in a few hours when the oats-and-apples-and-cinnamon-sugar craving strikes again. Also, I find it semi-annoying to measure teeny tiny amounts of things and making this for two helps that cause. And plus, the second leftover apple crisp is as good if not even better than the first. SERIOUS. It has time to sit and jive together with that coconut oil and cinnamon and get all soft and yummy and it gets to be baked twice. It is ten hundred percent cozy and delicious, and guess what? It’s already ready to eat since you made two of these to begin with. Awyeah. As you can see, I’m a BIG FAN of little single-serving treats.

Apple Crisp: I am having a love affair with the crumbly topping, and even more so when it’s heaped over those bubbling cinnamon sugar apples. But what else is new? The topping here reminds me of the one we made for that blueberry crisp this summer. It’s simple and wholesome: oats and nuts and a tiny bit of whole wheat flour mixed with a little crunchy turbinado sugar, some spicy-warm cinnamon, and a scoop of coconut oil. The thing about coconut oil and me is, like, usually, just no thank you. But I tried this apple crisp several times side by side using butter and coconut oil, and my tastebuds betrayed my prejudices and fell more in love with the coconut oil one than with the butter one. No, I know. It’s blasphemous. But I speak only in truths, and I would not tell you to make it with coconut oil just to be Trendy Food Blogger, because let’s face the facts: trendy is not anywhere in my life’s vocabulary. I firmly believe in loving the food you eat, especially your sweet snacks, and LOVE might be an understatement for how I felt about the wholesome coconut oil, pecan, and oat topping on this joyful lil apple crisp.

But anyways. I sort of feel like I should apologize for the random weirdness of this recipe, being that it’s made in the microwave and all, but no apologies needed, right? Because I truly loved this and the fact that it warmed me right to my toes and gave me a reason to take five minutes and sink a little deeper into my spot on the couch with a candle and a blanket, and I think you, in the middle of your busy, no-time-for-the-oven-days, will love it right along with me. Sometimes one little individual serving size apple crisp just makes the day so much more manageable. Go take five minutes and make this for yourself. Remember what I said about breakfast? I wasn’t kidding.