Apple Cinnamon Crumble

A good crumble is mostly about the topping. Too thin and you might as well be eating stewed apples. The version I have settled on is thick, rubbly, and has enough oats to give a proper crunch on top of the soft fruit.

Mix your apples — a couple of sharp ones with a couple of sweet ones gives you a much more interesting filling than using just one variety.

Ingredients

Instructions

1. Heat the oven to 190°C (375°F).
2. Toss the apples with the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and lemon juice in a 23cm baking dish.
3. In a bowl, mix the flour, oats, sugar, cinnamon and salt. Rub in the cold butter with your fingertips until the mixture clumps together in rubbly pieces.
4. Scatter the topping evenly over the apples, leaving a few gaps for steam to escape.
5. Bake for 35–40 minutes, until the topping is deep golden and the filling is bubbling at the edges.
6. Rest for 10 minutes before serving with cream, custard or vanilla ice cream.

Cooking tips

• Cold butter is essential for proper rubble. Soft butter makes a paste, not a crumble.
• Don't peel the apples too thinly — leaving a little texture gives a better bite.
• Make the topping in bulk and freeze in a bag. You can sprinkle it straight from frozen onto fruit and bake.

More like this

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