The event that lead up to the great Apple Glut of 2008 was our dear friend Lester coming over for some computer gaming with my boyfriend, and he brought with him about 5kg of teeny tiny green apples from his parents' apple trees. This being about a week before I was leaving for the land of more apples, I was pretty exited to get going on cooking these apples.
My first thought for apples isn't pie. It is crumble. My love of pastry is well-documented, but there is just something about crumble. Specifically the crunchy, sticky, fruity bits you get around the edges of the dish.
I made a big, deep-dish crumble for us, and then made some apple crumble bars for easy eating at game night the next night. No pictures of the finished crumble bars, because that was at a friend's house.
The apples, as mentioned, were super tiny. We estimated that one regular apple would be about 6 of these baby apples. So when the recipe says '5 apples' imagine me cutting up 30 ikkle apples.
The crumble bars were very tasty. I made them for ease of eating, thinking I could just put a big plate of them on the table, and we could eat them like cookies. The topping didn't harden up as much as it seems to have done in the photos over at Pete Bakes. While still good, the topping was still quite dusty and flour-y. I'm wondering if I mixed too much, and broke the butter up too much, thus no tasty little lumps.
The best thing about mum's crumble recipe is how easy it is. When we suddenly remembered that we had a bag of homegrown raspberries in the freezer, those got defrosted and thrown in. It also saved Patrick from cutting up even more apples.
First, the Apple Crumble Bars
(original recipe found at Pete Bakes!)
4 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups butter, softened
6 cups granny smith (or a variety of your choice) apples, skinned and diced (about 5 apples)
1 tsp cinnamon
1. take the butter out of the fridge to soften (do NOT melt) on the counter as you peel and dice up the apples into small cubes. squirt with some lemon juice and set aside.
2. combine the flour, salt, white sugar and brown sugar in a bowl.
3. cut the butter into the dry ingredients. the butter should not be melted. what we’re going for here are crumbs. you can either do this with a wooden spoon, or you can do what i do, and use your hands to crush it all together. (I love using my hands for mixing!)
4. take 1 cup of the crumb mixture and mix it with the apples. add the cinnamon as well and set aside.
5. preheat the oven to 350 F and grease and flour a 9×13 baking pan. take 1/2 of your remaining crumb mixture and press it into the bottom of the pan. bake for 10 minutes.
6. remove the crust from the oven, pour in the apple mixture and top with last of the crumbs. put it back in the oven for another 45 minutes. when it’s done, the top should be a beautiful golden brown. cool by putting the pan on a wire rack so air can circulate around it. cut into bars after they’ve completely cooled, if you can resist it. it’s a great idea to refrigerate the bars so they set a bit more.
And now: Heather's Mum's Crumble!
Really, this is just the recipe for the crumble topping. You can use whatever fruit you want, whatever baking dish you want. I did the deep Corningware because I love lots of fruit. Mum has done it in pie dishes too.
Ingredients:
Fruit
1 cup flour (I always use whole wheat)
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 cup oats
You can use whatever flour, whatever sugar you think tastes best. Try adding chopped nuts instead of oats!
Fill the dish to just below the edge, with fruit of your choice. Our apples were very tart, so I added some sugar, but not much because the raspberries help sweeten it too.
Put flour, sugar, and butter into a food processor and pulse until it is all mixed and even. Put this mixture into a bowl, and mix in the oats (you don't want the oats chopped up in the processor).
Pour this mixture over your fruit and pat down. Bake in a 375 degree oven for about 30 to 45 minutes, or until it browns on top, and juices bubble up the edges.
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