Homemade Apple Crumble

My homemade apple crumble

Hi everyone! How are you? Last week I made my first apple crumble since...year 7 which is also when I first learnt how to make it. I loved my cooking lessons because it didn't involve too much writing. How ironic though, I enjoy blogging and I'm not a very good cook either lol.  I love my apple crumble with some hot custard...mmmmmm... it is one of my favourite desserts!

I enjoy baking and I'm not too bad actually...only with easy recipes though. Lol. Short bread, pancake (do they count as bakery?) & sponge cakes. Those are easy and I can make them without any problem and now I know that includes apple crumble. Lol.

I want to share the recipe I used. If you're like me, can only bake easy desserts then this one is perfect. There are so many different recipes out there but I adjusted my one to suit my parents taste buds since they don't like their food too rich. I cut down the sugar a lot and it still tasted good! Yes, I'm very proud of myself. =p

I got this recipe originally from the BBC website by chef Atul Kochhar.

Ingredients:

For the crumble filling

• 4 cooking apples (Bramley/ Granny Smith- I used Granny Smith)
• It depends on the size of the apple and the dish, so add more if necessary.
• 2tbsp Caster sugar/ brown sugar
• 1 tbsp water
• Ground Cinnamon approx. 1 tbsp  (optional)- I love my cinnamon, it just goes so well with apples.

For the crumble

• 75g/2.5 oz cold butter 
• 3 tbsp caster sugar- originally its 75g
• 170g/6 oz plain flour

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C /350F/ Gas mark 4- I always forget to preheat the oven.
2. Peel, core and chop apples into large chunks.
3. Cook apples in a large pan over medium heat with the sugar, cinnamon (optional) and water, stirring occasionnally. The recipe suggested 12-15 minutes until apples have broken down but I like to have a bit of texture so I just cooked them for about 5 minutes or when they are soft.
4. Pour the apples out into the oven-proof dish and cool.
5. While the apples are cooling, start making the crumble. In a large bowl, sieve the flour.
6. Add butter and sugar into flour. Using your fingertips rub in the butter until it becomes like crumbs (If you don't know how to do the rubbing in technique, scroll down to watch a short tutorial video)- make sure the butter is not left out in room temperature for too long or it won't form into crumbs. Very important！It happened to me before. and I was not happy! 
7. Sprinkle the crumble mixture on top of the apples.
8. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown
9. Serve with custard, ice cream or whatever you prefer. Enjoy!

About to be put into the oven