There's truly nothing better than a warm and gooey apple crisp topped with cold and creamy vanilla ice cream. Kick this delicious dessert up a notch by cooking it in a cast iron skillet and drizzling it with homemade bourbon caramel sauce!
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📋 About the Recipe
- This delicious apple crisp is filled with fresh apples and a homemade bourbon caramel sauce. It's both slightly tart and sweet for the best combination of flavors!
- The soft apple filling is paired wonderfully with a crispy brown sugar oat topping and baked until perfectly golden brown. The filling is similar to the apple pie filling in these homemade cinnamon rolls.
- It's a shareable dessert, great for scooping and serving to a crowd or can also be made in individual mini skillets.
- This recipe showcases the best fall flavors and is a great way to use up an abundance of apples leftover from apple picking.
- A perfect dessert for the holidays. Serve this apple crisp for Thanksgiving or Christmas, along with no bake pumpkin swirl cheesecake bars, apple cider coffee cake, or peppermint hot chocolate zucchini bread!
🛒 Ingredients
For Bourbon Caramel Sauce
For Cast Iron Skillet Apple Crisp
A few notes about the ingredients:
- Bourbon - bourbon is a unique addition to the caramel sauce. It adds depth of oaky, caramel-vanilla flavor and really enhances the rest of the dish. I highly recommend using it, but if you don't have any on hand, you can simply leave it out.
- Apples - apples are the main component of this dessert. You can easily size the recipe up or down depending on the size of your skillet and the number of apples you choose to use. Learn how to cut an apple using this tutorial!
- Cinnamon - cinnamon provides warm flavor. It's in both the apple filling and the crispy oat crumble.
- Old fashioned oats - make sure to use old fashioned oats, as they cook the best in this recipe. Quick oats will cook too quickly and become mushy, while steel-cut oats will be too hard and won't cook properly.
- Brown sugar - brown sugar is a bit sweeter than regular white sugar. It also provides a warm, caramelly-molasses flavor to the dish.
📓 Instructions
For the Bourbon Caramel Sauce
1. Add sugar and water to a saucepan over medium heat. Whisk to combine and cook about 3 to 5 minutes, or until the mixture turns a rich, copper color (the color of a penny).
2. Immediately remove the caramelized sugar from the heat. Carefully whisk in the heavy cream. The mixture will bubble vigorously, so be extra careful not to burn yourself.
3. Whisk in the butter, vanilla extract, bourbon, and salt until the butter melts completely. Set aside to cool. The caramel will thicken as it cools.
For the Cast Iron Skillet Apple Crisp
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Add 1 tablespoon of butter to a 10 inch cast iron skillet. Place skillet in the oven to melt the butter. Remove the skillet from the oven and swirl butter around to coat the bottom.
3. Peel, core, and chop the apples into 1-inch pieces. Add to a large mixing bowl.
4. Pour ¼ cup of bourbon caramel sauce, ½ teaspoon of cinnamon, and juice of half a lemon on top of the apples. Stir to coat the apples evenly.
5. Scoop apples out into the prepared skillet.
6. In the base of a food processor, combine cold butter, brown sugar, flour, and salt. Pulse until it forms a medium-fine crumb. (If you don't have a food processor, you can also cut the butter into the flour and sugar with your hands, a pastry cutter, or knife.)
7. Add in the old fashioned oats and stir with a spoon to combine. Add the oat crumble on top of the diced apples. It will be heaping, but make sure to add it all on top for a thick and crispy crust.
8. Place the cast iron in the oven and bake for 40 to 50 minutes, or until the apples are soft on the inside and the top is crisp and golden brown.
9. Allow to cool slightly before scooping out, topping with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream, and a drizzle of extra bourbon caramel sauce.
⁉️ Substitutions and Alterations
Instead of apples: you can also use fresh pears.
Instead of bourbon caramel sauce: you can use a store-bought caramel, but make sure to look for one with little or no artificial ingredients. After all, caramel is mainly made from butter, sugar, and heavy cream.
❄️ How to Store
To store: If making this cast iron apple crisp ahead of time, allow it to cool completely before covering with foil and storing in the refrigerator up to 4 days.
To freeze: If freezing, allow to cool completely, remove the apple crisp from the cast iron skillet, and store in the freezer up to 3 months.
To reheat: Allow the apple crisp to defrost in the refrigerator overnight. Warm uncovered in a preheated 350 degree F oven for about 20 minutes, or until warmed through.
🔍 FAQs
No! Covering the apple crisp will result in a soggy topping. Instead, you want it perfectly golden brown and crispy, so leave it uncovered while baking.
I used tart granny smith apples to help balance out all of the sweet flavors. However, you can also use honeycrisp, golden delicious, gala, jonagolds, or a combination of different apples.
Yes! If you don't have a cast iron skillet, you can bake this in a baking dish instead. A 9-inch cake pan should work well. However, you may need to adjust the amount of apples, depending on how full the pan gets.
You can also adjust this recipe for a slightly larger or smaller cast iron skillet by adding more or less apples.
💭 One More Tip
This bourbon caramel apple crisp is easily transportable for sharing with others! Simply wrap it tightly with tin foil and store it right in the cast iron skillet in your refrigerator.
The skillet makes it easy to transport and reheat. When ready to serve, pop it, uncovered, in a 350 degree F oven until warmed through. Just make sure to bring along some vanilla ice cream and extra bourbon caramel sauce for topping too!
🍴 Related Recipes
Share your cooking with me! If you make this recipe, I'd love to know! Tag @yourhomemadehealthy on Instagram or leave a comment with a rating and some feedback at the bottom of this page!
📖 Recipe
Cast Iron Bourbon Caramel Apple Crisp
Ingredients
For the Bourbon Caramel Sauce
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons water
- ¼ cup heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon bourbon whiskey
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
For the Cast Iron Skillet Apple Crisp
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 6 granny smith apples (2 ½ - 3 pounds) or other semi-tart variety
- ¼ cup bourbon caramel sauce
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice (about half a lemon)
- ½ cup cold unsalted butter
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- ¾ cup all purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¾ cup old fashioned oats
- vanilla ice cream or whipped cream, extra bourbon caramel sauce for serving
Instructions
For the Bourbon Caramel Sauce
- Add sugar and water to a saucepan over medium heat. Whisk to combine and cook about 3 to 5 minutes, or until the mixture turns a rich, copper color (the color of a penny).
- Immediately remove the caramelized sugar from the heat. Carefully whisk in the heavy cream. The mixture will bubble vigorously, so be extra careful not to burn yourself.
- Whisk in the butter, vanilla extract, bourbon, and salt until the butter melts completely. Set aside to cool. The caramel will thicken as it cools.
For the Cast Iron Skillet Apple Crisp
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Add 1 tablespoon of butter to a 10 inch cast iron skillet. Place skillet in the oven to melt the butter. Remove the skillet from the oven and swirl butter around to coat the bottom.
- Peel, core, and chop the apples into 1-inch pieces. Add to a large mixing bowl.
- Pour ¼ cup of bourbon caramel sauce, ½ teaspoon of cinnamon, and juice of half a lemon on top of the apples. Stir to coat the apples evenly.
- Scoop apples out into the prepared skillet.
- In the base of a food processor, combine cold butter, brown sugar, flour, and salt. Pulse until it forms a medium-fine crumb. (If you don't have a food processor, you can also cut the butter into the flour and sugar with your hands, a pastry cutter, or knife.)
- Add in the old fashioned oats and stir with a spoon to combine. Add the oat crumble on top of the diced apples. It will be heaping, but make sure to add it all on top for a thick and crispy crust.
- Place the cast iron in the oven and bake for 40 to 50 minutes, or until the apples are soft on the inside and the top is crisp and golden brown.
- Allow to cool slightly before scooping, topping with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream, and drizzling extra bourbon caramel sauce on top.
Storage
- To store: If making this cast iron apple crisp ahead of time, allow it to cool completely before covering with foil and storing in the refrigerator up to 4 days.To freeze: If freezing, allow to cool completely, remove the apple crisp from the cast iron skillet, and store in the freezer up to 3 months.To reheat: Allow the apple crisp to defrost in the refrigerator overnight. Warm uncovered in a preheated 350 degree F oven for about 20 minutes, or until warmed through.
Notes
- I highly recommend using the bourbon, but if you don't have any on hand, you can simply leave it out.
- Make sure to use old fashioned oats, not quick oats or steel-cut.
- Bake the apple crisp uncovered for a crisp, golden brown topping.
- If you don't have a cast iron skillet, you can bake this in a 9-inch cake pan. You may need to adjust the amount of apples though.
- If you have leftover caramel sauce, you can store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 2 - 3 weeks.
Nutrition
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Baker703
Made this for a fall dinner with friends and it was a hit! The bourbon caramel sauce was amazing (I used a George dickel), even for someone who isn't overly fond of bourbon. I may try to sub out some of the apples for honeycrisp or another variety to give the flavor a little more depth next time. Also, the crumb/crust was delicious but there was SOOO much of it, so I may consider reducing it next or using less. Still delicious as is though, and a fantastic recipe with easy-to-follow instructions. Thanks!
Kate Vollmayer
I made this last night! I made it with a bit of a “Kate Twist,” which means I cut some corners due to, well, laziness. I didn’t want to get the food processor out, and even worse, clean it later, so I used my clean hands to mush everything together. Not the best shortcut because a few spots were still crumbly after I took the skillet out of the oven, but who cares! It was still delicious! I also used store bought caramel (for same reason stated above). The kids enjoyed it and didn’t even notice the boozy aftertaste. My mom ate it for her supper AND dessert, (with a sidecar of bourbon and ginger for measure!). Try this recipe if you have a little or a lot of time. Take the shortcuts, or not, but if you like apples, caramel, and bourbon, this recipe is for you! Enjoy!
Alana Lieberman
So happy it worked out for you! Store bought caramel definitely works perfectly well in a pinch.
Marni
This is ABSOLUTELY amazing!!!! The flavors were even amazing in leftovers the next day. We included ice cream and the apples were so delicious and fresh. You need to try this!
Alana Lieberman
Sounds delicious. Leftover apple crisp with ice cream is never a bad idea 🙂