Apple Crumble

I was at home for a few days this last week, which gave me a great opportunity to do some baking. I got the little sisters involved and we knocked up a couple of apple crumbles. Apple crumble is one of those desserts that is relatively simple to make, yet proves popular time and time again. With August coming to a close, Autumn feels nearer and crumble season officially begins!

We made two crumbles, one is a child-friendly (making and eating) 'normal' crumble using cooking apples sweetened with regular sugar, and the other is 'sugar-free' using eating apples sweetened with Stevia.

Ingredients
(regular crumble)
500g (1lb) cooking apples
4 tablespoons sugar
100g (4oz) plain spelt flour (or you can use normal wheat)
100g (4oz) rye flour (or use normal wholemeal)
100g butter
75g sugar

(sugar-free crumble)
1 eating apple (115g)
20g spelt flour
20g rye flour
30g butter
20g porridge oats
3g Stevia (equivalent to 6 teaspoons regular sugar)

Regular Crumble

Peel, core and chop the cooking apples into small pieces. Place the pieces into a large pan with four tablespoons of sugar and six tablespoons of water

Cook it on a low heat for 15-20 minutes until it turns to mush. Set aside to cool

Meanwhile stir together the two types of flour in a large bowl  

Chop the butter into small dice and add to the flours

Rub the butter into the flours until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs 

Stir in the sugar

Spoon the cooked apple into a large baking dish (we used a 22cm square dish) and spread out evenly

Finally spoon the crumble mixture over the apple so that it covers all of it

Lightly press the topping down with your fingers

Bake in a gas mark 5 oven for around 30-40 minutes. It's done when it is golden brown around the edges

Sugar-free Crumble

Cut the eating apple into small pieces and place into a small baking dish (12cm squared), add about two tablespoons of water

In a mixing dish stir together the flours, rub in the butter (as above). Then stir in the oats and Stevia. Spoon the topping over the apple and lightly press down

Bake in a gas mark 5 oven for 20-30 minutes 

To serve
Serve hot immediately with cream or custard

The regular crumble is based on a recipe in Usbourne's Children's Cookbook.