There’s nothing quite like the golden glow of a perfect crumble to ward off the autumn chill. It’s getting colder and colder here in the UK, and when the weather is like this, we always crave a warm comfort dessert like a crumble. This year, we’re using the spoils of an exceptional harvest: sweet blackberries from our usual trail and a neighbour’s generous box of apples.

A crumble is super easy to make in general, and this recipe never goes wrong! We love having it as a dessert or goûter (afternoon treat). We don’t even need custard, cream, or ice cream; it’s just an optional bonus—it’s great as is!

Ingredients 

Serves 3 to 4 people. 

Prep time: 1 hour, including the cooking time.

For the apple filling

  • 500g to 600g of apples
  • 15 - 40g sugar (depending on how sour the apple that you are using)

For the crumble topping

  • 100g plain flour
  • 30g sugar
  • 60g butter, cut into pieces
  • A pinch of salt
  • 1 - 2 tablespoons of milk if the crumble is too dry (sandy)

Tools

  • A peeler (optional, but it’s pretty helpful)
  • A knife
  • A chopping board
  • A bowl
  • An ovenproof dish (mine is roughly 21cm in diameter and 5cm in depth)

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 190°C
  1. Peel and chop the apples and place them in the ovenproof dish.
  1. Sprinkle enough sugar to cover the chopped apples, then mix by hand. 
    For me, this process is just to macerate the apple when I’m using a sweet apple.

You can also sprinkle some cinnamon powder to make it more autumnal or festive!

Baker’s note: It is about 30g of sugar for 440g of chopped apples, based on my weighing. This quantity also depends on how sour the apple is and how sweet you want the crumble to be. 

Since I got these apples from the neighbour’s giveaway box, I didn’t know what kind of apples they were, so I tasted them. It wasn’t super sour like a cooking apple, but definitely more sour than a Granny Smith apple. We usually prefer the apple filling to be a little tart (so on the sharp/sour side), with a sweet crumble topping and, if we have some, vanilla ice cream. 

If you have a sweet tooth, add more sugar, use a sweet apple like Gala or Cox, or serve it with custard or ice cream.

  1. Now move on to the crumble. Add plain flour, sugar and a pinch of salt and combine.
  1. Add the cold butter and combine with the flour, sugar, and salt by rubbing them together with your fingertips.
💡
Note: if you have a food processor, add the ingredients and blitz until combined, but don’t overwork it or it will become doughy.
If the crumble mixture is too dry, add a tablespoon of milk.
  1. Sprinkle the crumble topping over the apples to cover them adequately, and then it's ready to cook!
  2. Place in the preheated oven and bake for 30 to 45 minutes, or until the topping is nice and golden brown and you can see the fruit mixture bubbling along the sides of the dish.
  1. Serve as is or, if you want, have it with some vanilla ice cream, custard or clotted cream and enjoy!

Some other crumble fruit combinations

I love making crumble, and my husband loves eating it. So when we harvest some seasonal fruit, we go for crumble. You know, it’s easy and delicious!

Blackberry and apple

We harvested a lot of blackberries in late August and made a crumble with them, mixing them with apples. We also made some blackberry jam with the leftover blackberries.

Pear and fig

We have a pear and fig tree in our garden, and this year we harvested more than before! We used some to infuse our homemade kombucha, some to make jam, some served with a salad, and the rest went into a crumble! I had never tried a crumble with figs, but now I know how good it is, thanks to its earthy taste. I can't wait to harvest more!

Rhubarb

We can’t miss the rhubarb crumble when the season comes. I love the tart rhubarb taste, of course, but also the colour! Adding some custard is a must, especially with rhubarb.

Plums 

We enjoyed adding plums that we picked from a plum tree near our place this year. We had some red plums, and when cooked, they gave a beautiful, vivid pink colour with a sweet, tangy flavour.

Closing words

Here you have it, our delicious, crunchy crumble recipe to make you comfy. Just writing this blog makes me crave crumble again! It’s cold outside, so who knows, I might make some again.

We are active on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook. Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter so you don’t miss our future blog posts.