The quintessential fall dessert! I have made apple crumble for years, starting with my first job at Chudleigh’s Apple farm. (www.chudleighs.com, for those interested). They sold both double crust pastry and single crust Apple Crumble pies. We used to mix big bins of the crumble, using 5 lbs of butter in each. It was quite the work out for your hands!
I actually entered a double pastry in a pie contest at Chudleigh’s a couple of years ago and placed second. My daughter entered a crisp, she made the top five! See Facebook page:
Alex’s crumble is in front of her, my double pastry in the square pan.
I usually only make Apple Crisp, forgoing the pastry, as it is just extra calories! I usually use whatever apples are in the crisper, but yesterday I thought I might actually research which apples might be best before I headed out to the market. I decided to use Gala apples, as suggested by Blake Royer at:
http://sweets.seriouseats.com/2009/11/taste-test-finding-the-best-apples-for-baking.html.
Blake tested 8 varieties by baking mini pies and then sampling. Here are his comments on the Gala: This apple is on the sweeter side, but not overly so. It had a marvelous texture after baking, perhaps the best. It held its form, but melted with one bite.
Yummy as it looks!!
Yum, it was delicious! I use a variation of a Canadian Living recipe that is very similar to Chudleigh’s crumble. Here goes!
Apple Crisp
Makes enough crumble for one large pie(10 inch).
Gala Apples. peeled and sliced (enough to fill whatever pie plate/pan you are using)
2 Tbsp (aprox.)lemon juice mixed with apples to keep them form turning brown
Crumble
1 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup flour
2-4 tsp cinnamon, to taste
1/3 cup butter, softened but not melted
1 cup rolled oats
Mix sugar, flour and cinnamon with fingers. Add in butter, chopped into smaller cubes. Mix with fingers until the butter is not really visible and it looks very uniform. Add in oats. Spread on apples to cover. Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes. Fork should easily go through apples. Run a fork over the crumble to break it up as it cools.
Enjoy warm, with ice cream, whip cream, old cheddar or nothing at all.
The before picture…
…the after picture!