If practice makes perfect I should be an apple crisp expert by now.

Every fall this warm spicy dessert calls me to the kitchen, usually on a lazy Sunday morning, and the batch rarely lasts until the next day. Apples are a health food, right? The Better Homes & Garden version has always been my default, but it always seemed a little dry for the fruit part.

Until today.

The internet is a wonderful thing…who actually needs cookbooks anymore, right? I found a recipe that had me at coconut milk. But coconut milk caramel? Definitely worth a try, with my own twist on it.

My cooking method has always been dump some of this, add a pinch of some of that, but I actually wrote down the quantities this time just in case it was worth repeating.

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And, it was. So here it is, a gluten-free kinda-healthy apple coco uncrisp.*

Just don’t expect to have leftovers for breakfast on Monday.

APPLE COCO UNCRISP

Coconut Caramel:
• 13.5 oz can of coconut milk
• 1/3 cup coconut sugar
• 1/4 tsp. Real Salt
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Whisk together coconut milk, coconut sugar and salt well and bring to a boil. Reduce to medium-low and stir occasionally while you are making the filling and the uncrisp topping. After about 30-40 minutes it should be reduced by half, and take on the consistency of pourable ice cream topping.

Add the vanilla when you take it off the heat.

Filling:
• 2 pounds apples — about 10 small-medium size — cored and cut into eighths (I use McIntosh since they have the perfect tang, and soften while cooking)
• 1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
• 2 tbsp. minute tapioca
• 1/4 tsp. Real Salt
• 1/4 tsp. ginger
• 1/4 tsp. allspice

Microwave apple slices for 4 minutes to soften. Put all other ingredients in the lemon juice, tapioca LAST (it will be a crumbly paste) and then toss it with the apples.

STIR THE COCONUT CARAMEL

Uncrisp:
• 1/2 cup butter, melted ***(less 1 tbsp., see below)
• 1/3 cup ground flax seed
• 1/4 cup coconut flour (or any flour, regular wheat, almond, gluten-free, etc.)
• 3/4 cup old-fashioned oatmeal
• 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 tsp. Real Salt
• 1 tsp. Pumpkin Pie spice (or half and half cinnamon and nutmeg)

Mix all ingredients together well, starting with the sugar and spices.

ARE YOU STIRRING THE COCONUT CARAMEL?

Bake:
Heat oven to 350
Grease a 9×13″ pan with a cold butter stick, and then melt ***1 tbsp. from the 1/2 cup for the uncrisp while the oven is preheating to coat the bottom of the pan. Set a timer so you don’t burn it! (I might be speaking from experience…)

Layer:
Pour the apple mixture in the hot pan, and top with all but 1/4 cup of the coconut caramel…save that for later, as a drizzle, when you serve the uncrisp up piping hot.

Layer on the uncrisp topping and bake for 35 minutes.

It’s done when the edges are bubbly and before the coconut flour gets too browned. That’s why you precook the apples!

*Why uncrisp? Because it’s my recipe. Ha! That and I always thought “crisp” was a strange name for something so comforting. PS: I vote pumpkin spice as the official smell of fall even if Starbucks did try to ruin it.