This 45-Year-Old Recipe From My Elementary School Cafeteria Is Still My Go-To Dessert

I was born under a good sign. The day of the Cesarean section that brought me into the world, Eddie McCormick made my mom a special delivery at the hospital. The head of food and beverage at Greenwich Country Day School in Connecticut was best known for one dish: his apple crisp. The dessert welcomed me into the family of the school where my father was the upper school art teacher and that I would attend for eight of my most formative years.

From the time that I began my tenure at GCDS in first grade, I was enchanted by the family-style meals in the dining hall. (We never called it a cafeteria.) Teachers or visiting parents sat at the head of the table, presiding over their assigned group of students, which rotated every two weeks. For those weeks, one child would be assigned to the role of waiter, bringing food from the kitchen to the table and back again. Another was the sub-waiter, the most dreaded position, which meant scraping everyone’s gross plates.

McCormick elevated our dining above typical school food. Popular dishes included turkey à la king, buttery grilled cheese with tomato soup, and something called Jacks & Jills—French bread topped with Sloppy Joe meat and cheese, then broiled. I always looked forward to “Chicken Roundup,” when the staff would combine leftover barbecue chicken, cutlets and other preparations, with a side of buttered egg noodles. 

But the most sought-after dish in the chef’s arsenal was doubtless his apple crisp. Sometimes it was served with vanilla ice cream, which the teacher at the table scooped onto each of their charges’ portions of apples and oats. Later in my time at the school, it became more common to see the piping-hot dessert paired with warm hard sauce. To this day, I make it with the latter.

That’s because Eddie McCormick’s apple crisp is still my favorite dessert to craft at home. While my friends consider me an accomplished cook who’s mastered everything from 72-hour fermented pizza dough to a version of roasted chicken worthy of Plato’s cave, baking cakes and cookies fills me with anxiety. The super simple recipe, which I’ve amended to include cinnamon, has been my standby since I was in elementary school.

That’s because in 1992, GCDS mothers and staff collected their favorite recipes into a ring-bound cookbook entitled Country Days and Nights to benefit the performing and visual arts departments. Not surprisingly for the upscale suburb, the dishes within the 180 pages include everything from a caviar-egg-avocado mold and lobster mousse, to more plebeian fare like my own mother’s rice-speckled “porcupine” meatballs. 

My husband is admittedly the baker in the house—his rose-and-pistachio chiffon cake was unforgettable—but when more than just the savory courses fall to me, especially in autumn, I whip up the dish referred to in Country Days and Nights as “a GCDS lunchroom favorite.” Page 111 is irrevocably dusted with cinnamon now, more than forty years since the sweet oats and apples introduced me to comfort food. 

I was born into the recipe. But even cooks who weren’t will find this classic becoming a part of their regular rotation.

How to Make Greenwich Country Day School Apple Crisp

Ingredients

For the crisp:

• ¼ cup all-purpose flour
• 1 stick butter
• ⅔ cup brown sugar
• ⅓ cup white sugar 
• 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
• ½ cup uncooked oats
• 2 pounds tart cooking apples (about six medium apples)
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

For the sauce:

• 1 stick butter, softened
• 1 ½ cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla or ½ teaspoon almond extract
• 1 pinch salt

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 375 F. Mix flour, butter, sugar and cinnamon until particles are the size of rice. Add uncooked oats and mix well.
2. Peel, quarter and slice apples into a buttered 9-inch baking dish. Level out and pat down firmly.
3. Sprinkle with lemon juice. Top with oat mixture.
4. Bake for 30 minutes or until apples are tender.
5. Combine softened butter with powdered sugar, mixing until smooth. Add extract and salt and serve with over apple crisp.