The Best Apple Crumble I've Ever Made!

Our tiny weeny apple tree bore fruit – 5 of our very own Bramleys, my favourite cooking apples. 

Obviously being cooking apples they had to be cooked.  When it comes to apple desserts (as with most food!) my real man and I are in disagreement – he prefers an apple sponge and I always prefer a crumble.

Due to my inherent loveliness I usually make sponge when dealing with cooked fruit desserts but suddenly I had an inspiration which I needed to try out … 

Toffee Apple Crumble – for 3 or 4

4 medium cooking apples – preferably Bramleys
1 tablespoon caster sugar
240g plain flour
pinch salt
160g butter
120g soft light brown sugar
3 tablespoons more caster sugar

Good idea!  Pin this for later
so you don''t forget.

~   Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350°F/160ºC fan/gas 4.
~   Peel and slice the apples into an ovenproof dish.
~   Put the 1 tablespoon of caster sugar into a small saucepan together with ½ tablespoon of water AND set a container of about 40ml water beside the stove.
~   Over low heat stir together the sugar and the water till the sugar is dissolved and then bring to a boil.  Don’t stir once it boils but swirl about a bit when it begins turning colour.
~   Boil to a deep golden brown watching carefully.
~   Immediately it reaches this colour pour in the water you have set beside the stove. It will boil up like crazy and the caramel will solidify and go all interesting. Stir over the heat till the caramel melts into the water.

~   Pour this over the apples and stir together.
~   Rub the butter into the flour together with the pinch of salt then stir in the soft brown sugar.
~   Loosely pile this on top of the apples, level the surface, make a pattern if you feel like it and bake for about 30-40 minutes till the apples have collapsed and are tender and the top is golden brown.

Now the best bit! …

~   As with the caramel above put the rest of the caster sugar into a clean saucepan together with ½ tablespoon of water just to get it started.
~   Over low heat stir together the sugar and the water till the sugar is dissolved and then bring to a boil.  Don’t stir once it boils but swirl about a bit when it begins turning colour.
~   Boil to a deep golden brown watching carefully.
~   When it has assumed a lovely caramel colour immediately and very carefully drizzle it over the top of the cooked apple crumble.
~   It will cool and go hard very quickly.

Important and Helpful Guidelines for Making Caramel

~   Use a wooden spoon so that it neither gets too hot nor melts.

~   If possible don’t use a non-stick pan as they are too dark to see the colour of the caramel.
~   Equip yourself with a good heatproof cloth.
~   Put any additions immediately to hand beside the stove.
~   Never touch hot caramel with anything human or animal.

Heartbreakingly we didn’t have any clotted cream so had custard when hot and double cream when cold but I am so pleased with it I wish I had come up with the idea when I was still cheffing. I would have adapted it to make individual Crème Brulée / Apple Crumble hybrids, maybe caramelising the top with sugar and a blow torch instead of the method above.

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In Other News …

~   For lots of other apple recipe, particularly good for Bramleys, see here – A Glut of Apples.

~   Remember I made sourdough bread for the first time last week?   Well I’ve kept my mother going and today made a black pepper sourdough bread because I figured I put black pepper on almost everything so why not?

How to Cope with a Glut of Apples

I have a slight glut of apples which is particularly edifying when one considers that I don’t have an apple tree! I do however have a generous friend. The apples she’s given me are Bramleys; lovely cooking apples with the useful advantage of being self-puréeing, so an obvious thing to do with too many is make …

Apple Sauce

This is so easy I don’t think it can actually be called a recipe.

~  Peel and slice Bramley apples.

~  Taste a bit and then sweeten with as much sugar as you see fit. If you’ve no idea then add just a little and adjust with more sugar when the apples are cooked!

~  Put into a large pan with a tablespoon of water. This helps them get started but that’s all you need; too much and the sauce will be runny.

~  Put over a medium heat, cover and cook, stirring every few minutes till you have apple sauce! Taste and stir more sugar as necessary. 

If you have made loads freeze some, it freezes really well and ice cubes are a good idea so that you can thaw just what you need, or add a cube or two to soups and sauces.  Or here are some more ideas for leftover or too much apple sauce ...

15 Ideas for “leftover” Apple Sauce 

1.   Freeze as ice lollies!

3.   Stir into pork gravy or add to pork braises or stews.

4.   Fold into mashed potato to serve with ham, pork or  bacon.

5.   Add to pumpkin or other squash soups – delicious!

6.   Spread into bacon, ham or pork sarnies.

7.   Spread on the toast before the cheese when making  Cheese on Toast.

8.   Mix into mayonnaise – this makes a great dressing for  coleslaw.

9.   Add to braised red cabbage.

10. Make little apple tarts or turnovers with leftover pastry scraps.

11.  Use instead of jam to fill a Vicky Sponge, scones and  similar.

12.  Make an Apple Crumble, Cobbler or Sponge - recipes  here.

13.  Apple Crumble Sundae – layer up apple sauce and  leftover crumble (or Apple Crumble) with ice cream.

14.  Stir into yogurt or porridge for breakfast.

15.  Dollop into rice pudding

16.  “They do say” that fat in baked goods can be replaced  by apple sauce but I’ve not tried it myself. There is  plenty of info on the web though so have yourself a  look!

Pin for Future Reference!

Non-Bramley Type Apples

There are, of course, a lot of these around now as well so I’d just like to mention a lovely recipe I posted earlier.

Devonshire Apple Dappy

When I posted this I had the most visits to my blog ever and was very confused. Read here for the Apple Dappy recipe and here for a surprising (to me at least) explanation of its popularity. 

And this which I don’t think I've mentioned here before and which my sister and I concocted years and years ago when we were baby chefs …

Cornish Apple Cribbly

This is a superb way of using up leftover bread and apples at the same time. 

~  Peel and dice an apple and toss with sugar to coat.

~  Have ready about the same quantity of similarly diced stale or leftover bread (and in this case white bread is probably best).

~  Melt a knob of butter and cook the sugary apple in it till it is softening and browning and oozing lovely caramelly juices.

~  Use a slotted to spoon to remove the apple from the pan and set aside.

~  Add the diced bread to the pan and cook till the juices have been absorbed and the bread is turning crisp and golden.

~  Return the apple, toss all together and serve immediately with ice cream or cream, preferably of the clotted persuasion.

Several of these ideas are included in my book, Creative Ways to Use Up Leftovers.  If these are just some of the suggestions I can think of for Bramley apples don't you wonder what ideas I have for the other 450 potential leftovers?

Great preview here.

A couple of Reviews of Creative Ways to Use Up Leftovers ...

“Helps you create tasty loveliness from almost every possible leftover foodstuff you could think of (and possibly some that you couldn't....)”

 

“Cookery books are really very boring, but this one definitely isn't!”  

Always bear in mind, however …