Apple Crumble

My husband has a sweet tooth. We have a running joke that the only time he ever gets a pudding prepared for him is when I go on maternity leave, but before I have the baby. And because the only pudding I can make is crumble, he usually gets a crumble of some description.

I think he's had about 5 crumbles from me in his life.

Last week, a friend (Flo) dropped off some Bramley apples from her tree, exactly the right amount to make crumble number 6. My eldest loved rubbing the crumble mixture together in her hands whilst I cooked up the apple filling, and the sweet and tart flavours certainly rang the seasonal changes. We have gone from glorious sunshine to bluster, rain and hail in the space of a week, it seems! This recipe is tweaked from one in the Good Housekeeping Cookery Book, with a few additions.

 

Ingredients

CRUMBLE TOPPING

• 50g plain white flour
• 25g plain wholemeal flour
• 75g light muscovado sugar
• 50g ground almonds
• 50g fridge-cold unsalted butter
• A small handful of porridge oats

FILLING

• 700g (or thereabouts) Bramley apples
• 50g unsalted butter
• 75g golden caster sugar
• A pinch of cinnamon
• A pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

Serves 6

Instructions

• To make the crumble topping, sift the flours into a bowl, then add any bran left in the sieve. Stir in the sugar and the ground almonds, then work in the butter, using your fingertips, to make a very crumbly mixture. Add the porridge oats and stir to combine
• Peel and core the apples, and cut into 2.5cm chunks. Melt the butter in a large, heavy-bottomed pan. Add the apples and sugar, and cook, stirring over a gentle heat until the apples start to soften and break up. Transfer to a 1.7 litre (3 pint) pie dish
• Spoon over the crumble topping and bake at 175 degrees fan oven for 30 minutes.
• Serve warm with cream, ice cream or custard

Apple Crumble