If someone were to ask me what my best dessert is, I will without a doubt tell you it’s Apple Crumble. If you ask my mom what her favourite dessert is, she’ll tell you the same and I am pretty sure my granny would have said so too. This is a recipe that we’ve had in the family for generations and a true testament to its success is the fact that it has never been changed. Besides the great combination of flavours and textures, it is so easy to make. And the best part - you probably have all the ingredients in your kitchen already so you can begin making it the minute you finish reading this blog post. You’ll see it will very quickly become your Best dessert too.
For The Crumble Topping
1 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup golden brown sugar
1 1/2 cups cake flour
1 tsp cinnamon
250g salted butter, slightly softened and cut into blocks
For The Apple Filling
6 large Granny Smith apples
50g raisins
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp ground almonds
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp lemon juice
1. Add all your dry ingredients of your crumble to a bowl, then add your blocks of butter, and using your hands, mix the dry ingredients with the butter until you form a dough. Once all the ingredients are fully combined, place your dough in the fridge for 1 hour to firm up.
2. While your dough does its thing in the fridge you can move onto the apple filling. Peel, core, and cut your apples into 5mm slices. Place your apples in a bowl and add the remaining 5 ingredients. With your hands, mix it together until the apples are well coated.
3. After 1 hour has passed and your dough is nice and firm, turn on your oven to heat up to 190 degrees. While it heats up you can begin assembling your apple crumble. First, start by placing your apple filling into your chosen pie dish* and pack it quite tightly to make sure that the apples cover the base and create a nice, relatively flat surface on top for your crumble to sit.
4. Now, using the large holes on a normal grater, start grating your dough onto the apples, making sure the dough is evenly spread and that it covers the apples entirely.
5. Your pie is ready for baking. Place it into your oven and bake it for 40 mins or until the crumble is a nice golden brown. When it’s done, take it out of the oven and let it stand for 10 mins before serving. I highly recommend having it with custard but some prefer vanilla ice cream. This dessert is so good you may want to save some leftovers for breakfast, after all, the ingredients contain apples and oats.
*The quantities of this recipe are suited for a 24cm round pie dish.