When I saw a fellow ’29 dump spices from the spice rack into a plastic Green-2-Go container, I asked why she was pillaging the spice rack. She explained that she was foraging ingredients from the dining hall to make an apple crisp. Inspired by her, and craving something that was neither cafeteria nor take-out, I ventured out into the melting February snow with a Green-2-Go container to see if I too could make my own delicious homemade — dorm-made? — food.
I’d pulled up various recipes online, trying to find one with ingredients I could get at Foco. None worked perfectly, but I figured I could make do. First, I headed to the spice rack, where this idea had begun. No nutmeg or cinnamon. I stared for a beat, eyes going back and forth, re-reading labels. 53 Seasons, Foco’s title for the rack, and no nutmeg.
I pivoted and went to the granola station, which I figured was close enough to rolled oats, and poured apple crisp granola into the container. I got brown sugar and cinnamon near the waffle makers, butter from the bagel station, apples from the fruit case, lemons and milk near the tea and circled back to the spice rack for ground allspice, which Google told me contained nutmeg. I figured, flavor profile wise, that was close enough. The whole time I collected my ingredients, I was looking around nervously. I was there around 4:30 p.m. on a Sunday, which means it was basically just me, Souleymane and the guy at the spice rack. I chose not to think about what the Foco workers must have thought I was doing.
I set off through the snow to Wheeler Hall’s beat-up basement kitchen. I met my friend, Mairin Daily ’29, on the sidewalk and we headed down the stairs, dodging low-slung pipes. We set out our foraged ingredients and pulled out a bag of left-over open flour from the wooden cabinets. On my phone, I opened one of the multiple recipes I planned to Frankenstein together.
“Oh shit,” I said. I’d forgotten the vanilla extract. So Mairin headed over in search of something that could possibly work. She came back with a coffee cup of French vanilla syrup from the coffee station. Close enough, she guessed. Another genius baker.
We pulled bowls, tupperware, a pot, random measuring instruments and utensils from the cupboards, and preheated the oven to 375 degrees.
Ingredients:
Crumble Topping:
⅔ cup apple crisp granola (Foco)
¾ cup all-purpose flour (Wheeler Basement)
½ cup brown sugar (Foco)
½ tsp cinnamon (Foco)
½ cup salted butter (Foco)
Apple Filling:
2 sliced and peeled apples (Foco. There’s an apple slicer near the fruit case)
3 tbsp salted butter (Foco)
2 tbsp all-purpose flour (Wheeler Basement)
1 tbsp lemon juice (Foco)
3 tbsp milk (Foco)
½ tsp vanilla syrup (Foco)
¼ cup brown sugar (Foco)
½ tsp cinnamon (Foco)
¼ tsp ground allspice (Foco)
Instructions
- Topping: In whatever bowl-like object you can find, combine granola, flour, brown sugar and cinnamon. Add butter until well combined. We used a tupperware container and the orphaned beater from a missing hand mixer. I cut in the butter by hand for a solid few minutes and then ended up adding extra butter for a better consistency.
- Apple filling: In another bowl-like object, stir together melted butter and flour until smooth. Stir in lemon juice, milk and vanilla. Then, stir in brown sugar, cinnamon and allspice. Toss the apples into the mixture. We used a pot as the bowl and whisked everything together.
- Baking: Pour the apple mixture into a pan. Sprinkle topping over the mixture. Bake for about 35 minutes at 375 degrees. Let cool for at least five minutes to prevent burning your mouth. We put the mixture on a baking sheet and lumped it together in the middle. However, a baking dish would be ideal.
Final Notes
Keep in mind that all measurements are approximations at best. We tried our best to be accurate, but we were heavily limited by what was in the basement, which were ¼ cup, ⅓ cup and 1 cup dry measuring cups, half a set of measuring spoons, and a singular liquid measuring cup. Most everything was eyeballed. But we succeeded.
The final product was delicious. Mairin said that “it melts in your mouth. The topping is nice … not crispy, but it does have a little bit of a crunch. It’s perfectly spiced … a little bit of tartness from the apples [and] lemon juice … Overall, not a bad apple crisp.”
The apple crisp was warm, gooey and comforting in the dark winter and stress of Week 7. With the weeks speeding up, workloads growing and finals approaching, it was wonderful to go on a silly adventure and bake something with a friend. As it turns out, Foco can provide home-cooked food, even if a little slapped together.
