Apple crumble

Apple crumble was a weekly staple at home, be it with blackberries or apple and blackberries, but mainly apples!  So tasty and the addition of fruit to a sweet dish is always a good idea. 

From personal experience, the crumble was always the most popular component, even when a hotel I worked in tried to make it look posh on a dinner plate.  I think the customer would have preferred a plate of just crumble and custard.  Now there’s an idea – I am a huge fan of oats in crumble.

It gives me enormous pleasure to share this recipe with you from Gary Maclean. 

Credit and permission to share: Gary Maclean. 

You will need

Fruit crumbles have been a mainstay in Scottish cookery for hundreds of years but it wasn’t until World War 2 that it really took off, mainly because of a shortage of ingredients people could adapt and make a crumble supplementing the flour with things like oats.

This recipe uses Braeburn apples and not the traditional cooking apples normally found in an apple crumble, I use Braeburn as they are full of flavour they actual taste like apples, they also tend not to break up too much during cooking and because they are naturally sweet you don’t need as much sugar.

Fruit crumbles have been a mainstay in Scottish cookery for hundreds of years but it wasn’t until World War 2 that it really took off, mainly because of a shortage of ingredients people could adapt and make a crumble supplementing the flour with things like oats.

This recipe uses Braeburn apples and not the traditional cooking apples normally found in an apple crumble, I use Braeburn as they are full of flavour they actual taste like apples, they also tend not to break up too much during cooking and because they are naturally sweet you don’t need as much sugar.

Ingredients:

3 Braeburn, Cox’s or russet apples

20g ¾ oz Butter, unsalted

15g ½ oz Soft dark brown sugar

½ Stick Cinnamon

1 Star anise

Few drops Vanilla extract

50ml 2floz Cider

Method:

1. Peel and cut into ¼s and remove the core from your apples, next cut each ¼ into four and put to one side.

2. Heat a medium pan on the stove, add the butter as it starts to foam next add your cut apples and cook for 2 minutes.

3. Now add sugar, cinnamon, star anise and vanilla stir gently to mix flavours together.

4. The sugar and the butter should start to caramelize the sugar.

5. Once the apples are golden add cider and gently simmer for 5-6 minutes or until apples are nice and tender. Transfer this to your baking dish.

For the crumble Topping

Ingredients:

100g 3 ½ oz Plain flour

50g 2oz Rolled oats

100g 3 ½ oz Butter, unsalted, cut into cubes

40g 1 ½ oz Sugar

Pinch Salt

Pinch Cinnamon

25g 1oz Hazelnuts, chopped

Method:

1. Pre heat your oven to 180˚C/ 350˚C.

2. Place flour, oats and sugar into a bowl add butter and with the tips of your fingers gently rub in to create loose breadcrumbs.

3. Add a tiny pinch of salt and cinnamon.

4. Add the chopped hazelnuts nuts give it a good mix.

5. Spread the crumble on top of your cooked apple mix, bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes or crumble is cooked.