Pack It To Go: Apple Coconut Crisp

Are you planning a Thanksgiving menu? This week we’ll be suggesting a few of the feast-worthy garden-to-table recipes from the past year:

Olivia Rae James of Everyday Musings sees apples and her mind skips directly over pie to rustic, buttery crisps. We like the way her mind works. 

When we asked her to devise a recipe for us, she substituted coconut oil for more traditional butter and added coconut and almonds to a crumbly topping. Topped off with a coconut whipped cream, her Apple Coconut Crisp is an unexpected twist on our fall comfort food of choice. Excuse us while we preheat the oven.

For an ingredients list and step-by-step instructions, see below.

Photographs by Olivia Rae James for Gardenista.

Above: Tart Pink Lady apples ready to be cored and cut. 

Above: Olivia left the skins on her apples, but cored and cut them into evenly sized cubes.

Above: The makings for a crumbly topping: slivered almonds, oats, palm sugar, flour, and unsweetened coconut. Olivia mixed the apples with lemon, cinnamon, sugar and arrowroot, which acts like cornstarch to thicken the fruit filling.

Above: Baked for 35 minutes until brown and bubbling.

Above: Olivia’s secret to making a whipped coconut cream? Refrigerate a can of full-fat coconut milk overnight until the cream and milk have separated.

Above: Served in single serving mason jars, it will blend in discreetly with the rest of your brown-bag lunch. 

Apple Coconut Crisp

For the filling:

• 4 pink lady apples, cubed
• Juice and zest of 2 lemons
• 2 teaspoons arrowroot
• 2 tablespoons coconut palm sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

For the crumble topping:

• 1/3 cup flour
• 1/2 cup coconut palm sugar
• 1/2 cup oats
• 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
• 1/2 cup slivered almonds
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon flaky sea salt
• 8 tablespoons coconut oil or 1 stick of butter

For the coconut whipped cream:

• 1 15-ounce can full-fat coconut milk
• 1 tablespoon coconut palm sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. For the fruit base, mix apples, lemon juice and zest, arrowroot, and sugar. Pour evenly into a baking dish. Next, mix dry ingredients: flour, sugar, oats, coconut, almonds, cinnamon, and salt. Incorporate coconut oil last with a pastry cutter (or by using your hands), until mixture is coated and holding together in clumps. Distribute topping evenly over the fruit mixture. Bake for approximately 35 minutes, or until golden brown and bubbling. For the coconut whipped cream: begin by refrigerating a can of coconut milk overnight, or for at least a few hours until cream and water separate. Use only the cream, and whip with an electric mixer, slowly incorporating sugar and vanilla extract. To serve: spoon a dollop of cream on top of the warm crisp.

Would you like us to send you a new recipe every Friday? Subscribe to our Gardenista Daily email. For more of our favorite dinners, see our complete list of Garden-to-Table Recipes.

N.B. This is an update of a post that originally published on September 13, 2013.