Soft, tart cooking apple under a loose, buttery crumble topping, deliberately unspiced so that the freshness of the apple does the work. The English crumble came about during the Second World War as a frugal alternative to a pie (no pastry needed), and has been the standard late-summer/autumn pudding in every English household ever since.
Apple crumble
Apple crumble
Method
01
Apples
Peel the apples and cut into wedges. Mix with the brown sugar and lemon juice. Preheat the oven to 180 °C and grease an ovenproof dish with butter. Spoon the apples in.
02
Crumble
Mix the flour with the pinch of salt. Rub in the cold butter with your fingertips to coarse, loose crumbs, not a cohesive dough; the coarser the crumbs, the crunchier the crumble. Mix in the granulated sugar.
03
Assemble
Scatter the crumble loosely over the apples, right to the edge, without pressing down.
04
Bake
Bake for 40–45 minutes until the top is golden brown and the filling bubbles up around the edges.
Tips & notes
A Bramley (or, as a substitute, a Schone van Boskoop) is the right apple: very tart and it falls apart completely during baking into a soft purée. A firm eating apple such as Elstar stays in too many pieces and lacks that characteristic soft, tart filling. Never press the crumble down; the looser it sits, the crisper the result. Keeps for 2–3 days in a sealed container in the fridge.
Variations
- Replace part of the apple with pear for a softer sweetness.
- Add chopped walnuts or oats to the crumble for extra bite.
- For those who like it spicy: half a teaspoon of cinnamon through the crumble is a well-known, non-traditional variant.
Contains:
Gluten
Milk
Serve with
- Custard
| Calories | 844 kcal |
|---|---|
| Protein | 8 g |
| Carbohydrates | 135 g |
| Fat | 32 g |
| Fibre | 7 g |
Estimated values, calculated from standard nutritional values per ingredient.
