Tis the season for Apple treats 🍎 and today I’m featuring my absolute favorite, Apple Crumble. I always grew up with Apple Crisp, which is equally good, but an Apple Crumble is dreamy in my opinion. I was first introduced to crumble as an adult by David’s Scottish family. It was so buttery and cakey without the heaviness of a crisp. The difference between a crisp and crumble is that a crumble does not contain oats or nuts. Crumbles are simple with flour, sugar and butter ❤ and those ingredients almost create a cakey topper.
Since that first crumble, it’s been my go-to for scratch desserts, the reason being, it’s so delicious and easy to create. Crumbles usually include a stewed fruit; peach, berry, etc. For my Apple Crumble, I stew apples in butter, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon with just a pinch of salt. That pinch of salt, makes the apples SO DELICIOUS. The crumble is then created with the apple butter remaining 😋
I hope you enjoy this “treat” and feel free to share your first crumble.
Some notes
- I like to keep the skins on my apples because it adds texture to the dessert. You can certainly remove them, if you’d prefer.
- You only want to stew your apples for a short time since you’ll bake the crumble. After baking for 30 minutes the apples are smooth and very soft in texture. If you’d prefer some bite to your apples, cut them in larger slices.
- Adding salt to a dessert creates flavor. You can certainly omit it, but trust me, it makes the dessert that much better 😋
- I create my crumble with the remaining apple butter. If you prefer you can add the apple butter to the baking dish. This will create a deeper stew of apples.
- The crumble topping in this recipe could easily be made in a larger quantities and stored in the refrigerator until you’re ready to use it, that’s the way David’s family does it because when you find fresh fruit, crumble it is 👍 Crumble topper will stay great in the refrigerator for a month or two. 2TBS of butter is perfect for 1/2 cup of flour and 1/4 cup of sugar.
- Adding the thin butter slices to your crumble isn’t completely necessary, but it does help with the browning of the crumble.
- I like to use the boiler at the end of my baking time. It’s not needed, but it does help create some crunch to the crumble topper.
- This crumble could be made ahead of time and placed in the oven for a quick warm-up ready.
Ingredients
This recipe is enough for a 1qt baking dish or 2-4 ramekins.
- 2 large apples, sliced thinly
- 2TBS of unsalted butter
- 1tsp of vanilla
- 1tbs of ground cinnamon
- 1/4 of brown sugar
- Pinch of salt
- For the crumble:
- 1/2 of self raising flour
- 1/4 of white sugar
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
1. Begin by slicing your apples thinly and preheating your oven to 350 degrees.
2. Melt your butter in a nonstick pan on medium heat. Once the butter is melted and begins to bubble, add your apples. Coat your apples in butter.
3. Now add the vanilla, ground cinnamon, brown sugar and a small pinch of salt and combine with your apples.
3. Stew the apples for ~5 minutes and let some of those apple juices release.
4. Remove your apples with a slotted spoon and place them in a buttered 1qt baking dish or ramekins. The butter adds a little extra and prevents the crumble from sticking.
5. Now time for to create crumble, add your flour, sugar and a pinch of salt to the apple butter remaining.
6. Using a spatula, coat the flour, sugar and salt with the apple butter and create a crumble texture. If it looks too dry, add more butter. If the crumble is soft and spongy looking, add a bit more flour and sugar, it’s a 2:1 ratio.
7. Now add the crumble to the apples with a few small thin squares of butter.
8. Bake for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, turn your boiler on High to get a golden top.
9. Serve warm on its own or with vanilla ice cream or cream. Enjoy and cheers ❤