Apple Crisp with Condensed Milk

Apple crisp with condensed milk takes the classic oat topped dessert and adds that little something extra. It’s a little bit creamy, has a nice glossy top and tastes amazing.

Try this fun twist on traditional apple crisp. The addition of sweetened condensed milk adds a little bit of creaminess, some sweetness and that little extra bit of goodness.

By now you know I have a bit of a thing for sweetened condensed milk. I am willing to try adding it to just about anything.

I was curious about adding it to apple crisp, but every recipe I could find made you start by turning the can of condensed milk into dulce de leche first. While that sounds absolutely amazing, and I will likely do that someday, that is not what I had in mind.

Plus I didn’t want to take that kind of time. I wanted immediate apple crisp gratification.

Ps. You can also make homemade dulce de leche from milk, sugar and vanilla, but that would delay the process even more.

So I went about making exactly what I wanted. I started with my great grandma’s apple crisp recipe.

It is super simple but really delicious. Plus there is no added sugar in that recipe, so adding the sweetness of condensed milk doesn’t make it over the top sweet.

Why add the condensed milk?

Because it is delicious for one! Drizzling the sweetened condensed milk over the oatmeal topping helps to hold it together.

It also gives it a bit of glossy sheen and makes it extra golden. So it does wonders for those bits of crumb topping and makes them fabulous on their own.

The condensed milk that seeps through sort of collects between the fruit. When you hit a pocket it almost tastes like a bit of melted ice cream hiding in there.

Preparing the apples

You can use almost any kind of apple in this recipe. Obviously a good baking apple like jonagold, honeycrisp or McIntosh will hold up better, but feel free to use what you have.

Feel free to peel the apples if you like. Or use an apple peeler, corer, slicer if you have one.

Because an apple crisp is supposed to be kind of rustic, I like to keep the skins on the apples. A lot of the nutrients and fiber are in the peel and the texture doesn’t bother us at all.

Then I just quickly cut them into chunks. That way they still have some texture when they come out of the oven.

So it is definitely a personal choice. There is no right answer.

This recipe is great as written, but we also love it with a mix of apples and pears. They are so good together and it adds an extra layer of flavor and texture.