Apple Crumble

Crumble, or Crimble Crumble as our grandchildren call it, must be the most famous British family pudding. It has a crunchy topping with cooked fruit underneath. It is one of a series of  British fruit puddings using what fruit was growing at the time. 

Apple is one of the best known version of crumble, although we are partial to adding blackberries to the apple when they’re around. This dish was often made in the UK with chopped up Bramley cooking apples but when the Bramley cooks it collapses into a rough puree. There are much more pleasing ways to my way of thinking to make the Crumble using normal eating apples. So my recipe below reflects my preference. If you’ve got Bramleys though use the same quantity as below but chop the flesh up and put it straight into your dish with some added sweetness.

I use a straight sided shallowish dish with a big surface area - a tall but narrow dish doesn’t give enough crispy topping for me….

Ingredients

Serves 4 – 6

Special equipment — a straight side dish, my round one measures H 5cms; D 23cms

For the fruit filling

75g vegan butter

6 good size Braeburn or other eating apples, peeled, cored and chopped into cubes or sliced (for 4-6 people) use more if you like a generous quantity of apple

Ground cinnamon to taste

For the crumble topping 

Take equal quantities of the following (100g of each should be good for 4-6 people)

100g vegan butter, chopped into pieces

100g golden caster sugar or soft brown sugar for a more butterscotch taste

100g plain flour

100g medium porridge oats or ground almonds

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200C/180Cfan/400F.

2. For the fruit filling, melt the butter in a frying pan, when it is bubbling, add the apple and cook for three minutes or until golden.

3. Stir in the ground cinnamon and cook for one minute more. Spoon into an ovenproof dish.

4. For the topping, place the butter, sugars and flour into a blender and process until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs or mix by hand following instructions for making shortcrust pasty without the added water. 

5. Add in the ground almonds and give a quick blitz, or, if using the porridge oats, mix them in by hand and then scatter the mixture over the fruit making sure it is well covered. 

6. Place on a baking tray and bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes until the top is golden brown and crunchy.  

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Why not try adding some blackberries