Pure maple syrup sitting on my pantry shelf inspired me to track down a recipe for maple apple crisp. Apple crisp always sounds good and it’s easy to justify a dessert based on apples and oatmeal, two of the top good-for-you foods.

Skipping right to the chase, I’ll tell you I made it and was dumbfounded at the lack of maple flavor. I gave a heaping helping to my dad, who has 80 years of maple sampling under his belt and he concurred — delicious, but no discernible maple flavor.

So learn from my experience: Save your precious maple syrup for better uses and stick to your favorite apple crisp recipe.

In case you don’t have one, I’ll share a good simple crisp. This is for an 8-by-8-inch baking dish or a round baker. Double everything if you want a big crisp in a 9-by-13-inch baking dish.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Peel, core and thinly slice five or six apples. I like to use a couple of different kinds of apples. Granny Smiths, plus Golden Delicious and Braeburn, are good.

Toss them with 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon. You can add 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg if you like that. Place them in your baking dish and smooth them down, filling in the crannies.

To make the crisp, mix 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup oatmeal, 1/4 cup flour and 1/2 to 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Cut a cube of butter into pats, then squares, so you have about 32 pieces. Cut the butter into the sugar and oatmeal mixture until it the butter bits are small and coated with sugar and flour. I use a pastry cutter. You can do it in your food processor in about 1 minute. Mix the dry ingredients. Then dump the butter in a pulse a few times.

Pour the topping over the apples and pat it down evenly. Bake for 30 minutes.

Let the crisp cool a bit. Then serve with vanilla ice cream. Eat the leftovers for breakfast.