From the Kitchen: No Frills Apple Crumble

Hi everyone. Hope everyone is doing well.  I know it can be a bit tough to stay sane in this crazy world that we are in now. How about another slobber knocker of a dessert to perk up your mood? If that did not work, at least you can say you had a nice and warming bowl of goodness before going on a frenzy.

In any event, this is a must-have in anyone's recipe arsenal as the ingredients are super easy to find and are long lasting, if stored well. So here it goes! Another British classic! Man I miss my university frat boy days.



Apple Crumble

Crumble topping ingredients:
70 gm butter
140 gm all purpose flour
2 tbsp sugar


Apple filling:
3 apples, chopped into cubes
sugar
butter
apple cider vinegar



Steps:

Let the magic begin!

1. Preheat your oven at 180C. Meanwhile, saute your apples with butter. Add a splash of apple cider vinegar when things get a little dry. Add in sugar to taste. Try to dissolve the sugar without burning.

Pro tip:

• Some recipes do require you to burn the sugar to create a caramel. That is actually a good idea. However I want to make this as fuss free as possible and caramalisation will ramp up the difficulty level of this recipe. But feel free to caramelise your fruits if you are confident.  Also, I did not put a sugar ratio as it depends on the sweetness of your apples. For completeness I used 3 tablespoons.

If this is not sand granules, I do not know what is. 

2. Break your butter into cubes and combine the butter with your hands. Aim for a cold 'sand granules' sort of texture.

Pro tip:

• Once cutting your butter to cubes, put it back in the fridge until you intend to use it. Your butter must be super stone cold to ensure you get that sandy texture. Failing which, the butter will melt and you get a cake-like texture instead after the baking process. 
• If you really want to go the extra mile, use a chilled metal bowl for mixing the butter and flour. 
• Note that it is not a good idea to start with a whole block instead of small cubes. This is because it will make the breaking apart process very difficult and the heat from your hands will cause the butter to melt way before the creation of the sand granules. 

Oven ready! You can use one big oven proof dish if you like, instead of making individual portions. 

3. Place your sauteed fruit into a oven proof dish and top it with the sandy topping. Pack it down and add a sprinkle of sugar before putting it in the oven for about 30-45 mins at about 180c.

Final result! Simple beauty indeed. 

That is it! This is honestly very fuss free and is a recipe that I have been returning from time to time. Also, this is a base recipe for any crumble recipe. As long you are using fruit with high water content, that is fine.

Golden glory. 

As an example, I have used this recipe on pineapples and it worked like a charm! Do note if you like your filling to be less jammy and more textural, you may want to omit the saute and just add everything into a oven proof dish before finishing up with the topping.

Taste great with pineapples too!