Apple Crumble

One Wednesday, late afternoon...
all of sudden the sky above South Jakarta changed rapidly; the bright sunny sky turned to cloudy gray.
Home alone, I slightly felt tired. I decided to cheer myself up by baking!
Actually I had no specific plan, just wanted to bake something classic, easy, and quick.
I was thinking it would be nice for welcoming my children from school with baked food, since every Wednesday they get home very late due school sport activities.

Just quickly flashed in my mind... 'Crumble!'
and yes... I spent my evening; baking, styling, photographing, and eating the homemade apple crumble, plus bonus; extra job to clean the mesh and washed the dishes. Uh yeah!

Crumble : A British name for a blend of berries or other fruit with a textured sugary topping, often with oats; the result is all but synonymous with a crisp. (Martha Stewart Living Magazine, August 2005)

• An old fashion fruit dessert on the bowl or plate.
• Cobblers, Crisps, Brown-Betty, Buckles, Pan-dowdies, Grunts are other variants of the crumbles. Probably we don't give much attention to its name.. just enjoy, they look alike.
• Many people said that it's better to catch the warm, running juices and broken bits of topping of the dessert, but I really enjoy the cold crumble.

Having apples on the fridge, and some basic baking ingredients in the kitchen cupboard,
... Apple Crumbles was the perfect choice.



Heavy rain started to drop to the ground, when I peeled the apples after book-marking the Donna Hay recipe I got from her website. I used local apples; 'Apel Malang' instead of using Green Granny Smith Apples, which is quite expensive in this country; double price of the local apple! Remember, we need about 1 kg apple, not 1-2 apples only.

As I planed before, baking something easy and quick. It didn't take too long, preparation and baking time were completed quickly.

• To prevent the apple from turning brown, I soak the peeled apples in a bowl of cold salt water, while preparing the topping.
• I prepared 1.5 batch of the topping, the idea is to put more topping on each bowl :)
• Additional chopped almonds, cranberries and raisins added more flavor and texture to the dessert.
• Using smaller ramekins, I got 8 individual cups of crumbles.

I believe, irresistible desserts don't need a mile-long ingredient list or an elaborate preparation... this tempting crumble proves it. The balancing flavor and the rich texture from the both layers; soft jammy sweet apples and crunchy crumble topping create a delicious evening dessert for us.
And, this dessert is even better dressed up with slightly sweetened whipped cream, or another option, you can serve with vanilla ice cream.



Apple Crumble
source : Donna Hay

Ingredients :
6 Granny Smith (green) apples, peeled and chopped
¾ cup (135g) brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Topping
1 cup (150g) plain (all-purpose) flour
½ cup (110g) caster (superfine) sugar
50g butter, softened

Preheat oven to 160ºC (320ºF).
To make the topping, place the flour, sugar and butter in the bowl of a food processor and process until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Set aside.
Place the apple, sugar and cinnamon in a bowl and mix to combine. Spoon the apple mixture into 4 x 1 cup-capacity (250ml) ovenproof dishes, sprinkle over the topping and bake for 20–25 minutes or until golden.

Makes 4.

Remember that I prepared 1.5 batch of the topping. 
I had some left over of it, I kept in the fridge. Last weekend, I baked another apple crumble using that excess topping. This time, I didn't bake in the individual ramekins, but in one pie pan. 
Another delicious dessert to be served on Saturday evening while enjoying sunset from our front terrace.



Have a good night, ...see you on June.