Apple Crumble
Bramleys tossed with a little cornflour so the juices thicken instead of flooding, under a lumpy oat topping that is never pressed down.
- Prep
- 20m
- Cook
- 45m
- Waiting
- 10m
- Total
- 1h 15m
- Serves
- 6
- Effort
- Easy
Method
Tap a step number to mark it done. Tap an ingredient once for got it, twice for need it.
| 200 g | Rub the butter into the dry ingredients to a rough, lumpy crumb 8m Stop while pea-sized lumps remain — those are the crunchy bits. | Tip the crumble over the fruit without pressing it down 3m Loose and uneven. Packed flat, it bakes into a lid and steams. | Bake at 190°C / 375°F for 45 minutes until the juices bubble up at the edges 45m Rest 10 minutes before serving. Straight from the oven the fruit is molten. | |
| 125 g | ||||
| 75 g | ||||
| 50 g | ||||
| 50 g | ||||
| a pinch | ||||
| 900 g | Toss the apples with the sugar, cornflour and lemon 8m | |||
| 75 g | ||||
| 2 tsp | ||||
| 1 tbsp | ||||
| 1/2 tsp |
-
Rub the butter into the dry ingredients to a rough, lumpy crumb
8m- plain flour 200 g
- unsalted butter 125 g
- demerara sugar 75 g
- rolled oats 50 g
- ground almonds (optional) 50 g
- fine salt a pinch
Stop while pea-sized lumps remain — those are the crunchy bits.
-
Toss the apples with the sugar, cornflour and lemon
8m- bramley apples 900 g
- caster sugar 75 g
- cornflour 2 tsp
- lemon juice 1 tbsp
- ground cinnamon 1/2 tsp
-
Tip the crumble over the fruit without pressing it down
3m- from 1 Rub the butter into the dry ingredients to a rough, lumpy crumb
- from 2 Toss the apples with the sugar, cornflour and lemon
Loose and uneven. Packed flat, it bakes into a lid and steams.
-
Bake at 190°C / 375°F for 45 minutes until the juices bubble up at the edges
45m- from 3 Tip the crumble over the fruit without pressing it down
Rest 10 minutes before serving. Straight from the oven the fruit is molten.
Cold butter, and two teaspoons of cornflour
Rubbing cold butter into flour coats the particles in fat without melting them. In the oven those butter pockets melt and boil, steaming the crumb apart into loose, sandy clumps — the same shortening effect that makes pastry flaky, only uncontrolled, which is exactly what you want. Underneath, Bramleys are unusually acidic and high in water, and they collapse. The cornflour gelatinises in that released juice and turns it into a syrup that clings to the fruit rather than soaking the topping from below.
Notes
- Chunks, not slices. Slices disintegrate completely in 45 minutes.
- Eating apples hold their shape but taste flat. If you use them, halve the sugar and add extra lemon.
- Any leftover topping freezes raw for months and goes straight from freezer to oven.