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An Apple Brown Betty is a delicious baked dessert with buttery crumbs topping layers of fresh apples. It’s in the same dessert family as apple crisp and apple cobbler. It’s as easy to make as my caramel apple dump cake!
October 5th is National Apple Betty Day! Celebrate this day by using our recipe to make your own Apple Betty. It’s an old fashioned dessert that you don’t see often in a restaurant (maybe a diner!), and it’s easy enough to bake at home.
The History of Betty Desserts:
Betties are an English pudding dessert that is closely related to the French apple charlotte. The Betty was a popular baked pudding made during the colonial times in America. At that time, the crumb topping was made with stale, day-old bread. According to The Oxford Companion to Food, Apple Betty gets its name from its creator- an African American woman named Betty. The “brown” is said to denote her skin color. Though I’ve read other accounts that the brown refers to brown sugar.
The first appearance of “brown betty” in print was in the Yale Literary Magazine of 1864. In 1877, cracker crumbs and applesauce were used to make a brown betty. In 1890, a Brown Betty recipe won a prize from the American Public Health Association. A Brown Betty Pudding recipe was include in “The Original Picayune Creole Cookbook” in 1901.
Ingredients needed:
- Apples: We use the Granny Smith variety for this recipe. Their firm, dense texture resists becoming mushy when cooked. And their tart flavor balances out the sweetness in the recipe.
- Lemon juice: Use freshly squeezed to sprinkle over the apple slices. It helps prevent them from browning.
- Baking Basics: Flour, white sugar and brown sugar (or you can use all brown sugar), ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg and salt.
- Butter: I like to use salted butter in baking. The salt adds flavor!
- Vanilla ice cream, for serving (optional!)
How to make an Apple Brown Betty:
The complete, printable recipe is in the recipe card at the end of this post. Here’s a brief overview.
- Preheat the oven, and spray a pie plate with nonstick spray.
- Add sliced apples to the pie plate, and sprinkle them with lemon juice.
- Use a pastry blender to cut the topping ingredients together to form a crumb mixture. Sprinkle that over the apples.
- Bake for 30 minutes. Then cover it with foil, and bake it for about 15 more minutes.
Recipe Tips:
- Oats are not traditional to use in the topping for an Apple Betty. But if you want to add oats to your topping, I recommend adding in 2 tablespoons of oats.
- Honeycrisp, Braeburn and Cortland are additional apple varieties that would be good in this recipe.
- If you do not have a pastry blender, use two knives to cut the crumb mixture together.
- Try serving salted caramel ice cream on top of your Apple Betty. Yum!
Spoon out individual servings. The apples will be sweet and soft (just like a good apple pie), and the topping is buttery and delicious.
You can certainly eat this fabulous apple dessert without any topping. It’s best when eaten warm. But it’s rather delicious when topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or whipped cream. Enjoy!
Fun Facts About the Apple Betty:
- A Brown Betty is classically made with all brown sugar.
- A Betty is typically made with any kind of fall fruit. Try adding persimmons, pears or dried fruit.
- The Apple Brown Betty was a favorite dessert of the Reagan family when they lived in the White House.
- Another classic topping for the Brown Betty is lemon sauce.
- The Apple Betty is in the same family as crisps and cobblers. A Betty does not typically use oats in the topping.
Apple Brown Betty
Ingredients
- 4 cups peeled and sliced Granny Smith apples
- 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
- ¾ cup all purpose flour
- ½ cup granulated white sugar
- ½ cup packed brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- pinch of salt
- ½ cup chilled salted butter, cut into chunks
- vanilla ice cream, for serving (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375℉. Spray a 9-inch pie plate with nonstick spray (or rub with butter).
- Add the apples to the pie plate. Sprinkle the lemon juice evenly over the apples.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugars, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Use a pastry blender (or two knives) to cut the butter into the flour mixture (you're looking for the consistency of coarse crumbs). Sprinkle the flour mixture evenly over the apples.
- Bake for 30 minutes. Cover the top of the apple betty with a piece of foil (to avoid excessive browning), and bake for an additional 15 to 20 minutes.
- Great served with vanilla ice cream!
Notes
- If you want to add 2 tablespoons of oats to your topping, that’s completely up to you. It’s not traditional for an Apple Brown Betty, but some people like oats in the topping!
Nutrition
This recipe comes from RecipeBoy.com
