Classic Apple Crumble

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Wide, shallow baking dish (around 1.5 litres)
• •Large mixing bowl
• •Vegetable peeler
• •Sharp paring knife

Instructions

1. 1

   Prepare the apples

   Heat the oven to 190C/170C fan. Peel the Bramleys, quarter them, cut out the cores, and chop into rough chunks the size of a walnut. Don't be too neat about it. Some pieces will collapse into a soft, tart puree, others will hold their shape, and that unevenness is the whole point. Tumble them into a buttered baking dish with the caster sugar, the tablespoon of flour, the lemon zest and a squeeze of juice. Toss with your hands until everything is coated.

   Bramleys are the apple for this. They cook down into that soft, sharp tangle that a crumble needs. Eating apples stay too firm and end up tasting polite. You don't want polite.
2. 2

   Rub in the crumble

   Tip the plain flour and a pinch of salt into a wide bowl. Add the cold, cubed butter. Now use your fingertips, not your palms, and rub the butter into the flour with a light, flicking motion, lifting it above the bowl as you go to keep things cool and airy. Stop when the mixture looks like coarse, uneven breadcrumbs. A few larger lumps of butter are welcome. They turn into pockets of crispness in the oven.

   Cold hands help. Run them under the cold tap first and dry them properly. Warm hands melt the butter and you lose the rubble-y texture you're after.
3. 3

   Finish the topping

   Stir the demerara sugar and the oats through the crumb mixture. The oats aren't traditional in every house, but they give the top a bit of bite and a toasted, nutty edge once it bakes. Taste a pinch. It should be sweet but not cloying, with the faint crunch of the demerara still detectable.

   Demerara over caster sugar in the topping. You want those coarse, amber grains that catch and caramelize on the surface. Caster dissolves and disappears.
4. 4

   Top the apples

   Scatter the crumble over the apples in a generous, uneven layer. Don't press it down. You want it loose and craggy, with peaks and valleys for the hot fruit to bubble up through. Take it right to the edges of the dish. The bits at the rim always go darkest and most interesting.

5. 5

   Bake until bubbling

   Slide the dish onto the middle shelf of the oven and bake for thirty-five to forty minutes. You're looking for two things at once. The top should be a deep, proper gold, darker at the edges where the sugar has caught. And the apples underneath should be sending up thick, slow bubbles of purple-tinged juice around the rim. If the top is pale but the fruit is bubbling, give it another five minutes. Trust your nose. It knows before you do.

   If the top is darkening faster than the fruit is cooking, lay a loose piece of foil over it and carry on. Better a slightly paler crust than undercooked apples.
6. 6

   Rest and serve

   Take the crumble out and let it sit for ten minutes before you go near it. The fruit underneath is volcanic, and the juices need a moment to settle and thicken. Spoon it into bowls, making sure each serving gets both the soft fruit and the crisp top. Pour cold double cream straight from the jug so it pools and slides into the hot apples. Custard if you prefer. Both if it's that kind of evening.

Chef Tips

• •Bramleys are non-negotiable for a proper crumble. If the market hasn't got them, wait a week or try again. If you absolutely must use eating apples, choose something sharp like a Cox or a Braeburn, add a bit more lemon juice, and accept that the texture will be firmer and the flavour less interesting.
• •Don't oversweeten the fruit. A good crumble wants the apples to stay tart underneath so the sweet topping has something to lean against. If your apples are unusually sharp, add a spoonful more sugar. If they're milder, hold back. Taste a raw chunk before you decide.
• •A handful of oats in the topping isn't traditional in every house, but it earns its place. It gives the crust a nuttier, more toasted edge and a bit of structural crunch that pure flour-and-butter crumble sometimes lacks.
• •Make it in a wide, shallow dish rather than a deep one. You want a generous ratio of crisp top to soft fruit in every spoonful, and a deep dish throws that balance out. Enameled cast iron or a good earthenware dish is ideal.
• •Cold cream straight from the jug is the right answer. The contrast of cold, loose cream against hot, soft apples and crunchy topping is the whole pleasure of the dish. Custard is welcome too, but cream first.

Advance Preparation

• •The crumble topping can be rubbed together up to three days ahead and kept in an airtight container in the fridge. It actually benefits from the rest.
• •The whole crumble can be assembled in its dish a few hours ahead and kept in the fridge before baking. Add five minutes to the cook time if it's going into the oven cold.
• •Leftovers keep for two days in the fridge. Reheat in a moderate oven, not the microwave, or the topping will turn soft. Cold crumble for breakfast is its own quiet pleasure.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 220g)