The esteemed crumble

I underestimated the apple crumble.

I was arrogant enough to attempt a crumble without a recipe. After all, it's just some sugared apples, with a topping of flour, butter and sugar. Dump one on top of the other, stick the mess into a hot oven and take it out when you think it's done, right?

Wrong.

What I got was undercooked apples under soggy coat of sugary flour. It was edible but acted more as a topping to ice cream, rather than the intended reverse. I decided to give the crumble a bit more respect next time around.

Apple crumbles have an unmistakably British association for me. Never a fan of fruit-heavy desserts, I was first converted to the crumble by a London flatmate's girlfriend. Every once in a while she would effortlessly pull together a giant pan of the stuff in what seemed like seconds. We ate it for 'pudding' at the end of our Sunday dinners with vanilla custard out of a carton. Another friend worked at the Harrods food hall and if I dropped by at the end of his shift, one or two apple and blueberry crumbles would find their way into my bag.

I wanted to somehow recreate those two memories. Adding berries to the apples was a no-brainer. It brightens up the filing and makes it more interesting. (Thank you Harrods!) I then looked around for a fool-proof topping recipe. I'm pleased that I was able to find it on that side of the pond - in the Guardian.

Felicity Cloake is a recipe tester and developer at the Guardian's 'Word of Mouth' blog. I found it recently when searching for another English recipe, and became a fan immediately. For each project she consults the who's who of British cookbook authors and combines the best features of each into her final result. Essentially, she did all of the legwork for me, and all I had to do was follow her recipe, and enjoy the best (out of two) crumble I ever made!

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About the filling - as much as I hate adding an extra step to any project, stewing the apples for a few minutes is the easiest way to guarantee that you won't end up with undercooked fruit. Really though, the filling is endlessly interchangeable. In the summer, I would like to try this out with heaps of fresh raspberries and blueberries.
The topping is perfect. Don't change it. Trust me.

 

Raspberry apple crumble 

adapted from Felicity Cloake's Perfect Crumble recipe.  

100g plain flour
50g ground almonds
125g chilled, unsalted butter, cut into cubes
35g demerara sugar
35g caster sugar, plus extra for the fruit as required
About 900g fresh fruit - I used 3 large Braeburn apples and 3/4 cups of frozen raspberries.

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350F. Combine the flour, ground almonds, sugars, and butter in a large bowl, and rub with your fingertips, until the mixture resembles very coarse breadcrumbs with a few larger lumps
2. Sprinkle with a little cold water and rake through with a fork until you have a lumpy, crumbly mixture. Put this in the freezer while you prepare the filling.
3. Peel, core and cut up the apples into small chunks. Add apples to a pan, along with two tablespoons of water, the lemon juice and sugar (adjust based on apples' sweetness and your own taste). Cook over a medium heat until the apples begin to soften.
4. Add half the apples to a lightly greased, shallow baking dish. Sprinkle the raspberries over evenly, cover with remaining apples and their juice.
5. Arrange the crumble over the top of the fruit (don't press it down). Bake for about half an hour, until golden and bubbling, and serve slightly cooled.