I love baking with fruits and I simply love apples in desserts like Apple Pie, Apple Cake, Apple Halwa. My love for baking makes me try and test various recipes which I then share on the blog if the recipe is successful after various baking attempts.

I often make baked dishes like crumble, cobbler and crisp with fruits. I have made apple crumble so many times and so thought of sharing the recipe. In this recipe, you get an apple crumble that has a crispy top and a moist jammy apple stuffing. There is no watery consistency in the filling.

What is a crumble ?

A crumble is a baked dish with a streusel topping. It can be both savory and sweet. The streusel topping gives a lovely crispy texture to the crumble after getting baked. With fruits, a sweet version is made. With meat or vegetables and cheese a savory version can be made. Fruits like apple, peach, various types of berries, plum, apricot, rhubarb are commonly used to make a crumble.

This Easy Apple Crumble is

• Made with whole wheat flour
• No oats have been added
• Has fresh apples
• Very easy
• Apples are not separately cooked thus saving some time

Serving Apple Crumble

Apple crumble can be served warm or at room temperature. You can serve it plain or accompany it with vanilla ice cream or custard or whipped cream. Leftover apple crumble should be refrigerated. While serving later, just warm in the oven for some minutes and then serve.

A note on Apples

Red apples taste best in this recipe. You can use any variety of red apples. Even green apples that have a sour-sweet profile taste good. If you prefer some tartness in the crumble than opt for green apples. You can even use canned apples.

How to make apple crumble

Making apple filling

1. Firstly rinse 4 medium-sized apples (500 grams) in running water. Drain all the water. Then peel them. Removed the seeds and pith. Chop apples in 1-inch cubes.

2. Take the apples in a mixing bowl. Sprinkle 60 grams sugar or 6 tablespoons sugar (can use granulated sugar, powdered sugar or castor sugar), ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon, ½ teaspoon lemon juice and ⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg (optional).

3. Add ½ teaspoon lemon juice.

4. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons whole wheat flour.

5. Mix very well and keep aside.

6. Grease a baking tray or pan with some butter. Keep aside.

Making streusel stuffing

7. In a mixing bowl take 75 grams cold butter cubes (⅓ cup).

8. Add ½ cup castor sugar or powdered sugar (100 grams). Please do not use granulated sugar as it does not melt while baking and gives a terrible granular texture to the top streusel layer.

9. Add 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or ½ teaspoon vanilla essence.

10. Top with 1 cup whole wheat flour (120 grams), ½ teaspoon baking powder and a pinch salt.

11. With a pastry cutter cut the butter in the flour till you get a sandy bread crumb like texture in the flour. You can also use a knife or your fingers to mix the butter with the flour. You can also use a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. If butter begins to melt then keep the mixture in the fridge for some minutes.

12. The texture of the streusel should be like a bread crumb texture.

Layering
13. Place the apples stuffing in the greased pan. Layer the apple neatly in the pan. Also preheat the oven for 15 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius or 356 degrees Fahrenheit.

14. With a spoon sprinkle the streusel topping evenly all over the apples.

15. Sprinkle in such a way that you get an even layer of the streusel stuffing on the apples.

Baking

16. Place the pan in the preheated oven.

17. Bake at 180 degrees Celsius or 356 degrees Fahrenheit for 40 minutes till golden on top. Oven temperatures vary so do keep a check.

18. Let the apple crumble become warm and then serve. You can serve with ice cream, custard or whipped cream.

Apple Crumble Tips & Variations

• Oats: For a more crunchy and crispy texture, you can add oats. Add ½ cup rolled oats and ½ cup whole wheat flour or all-purpose flour.
• Flour: You can use all-purpose flour instead of whole wheat flour.
• Mixing: You can mix the flour with butter using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. You can also mix with your hands.
• Vegan options: You can use solid coconut oil instead of butter. If coconut oil is in liquid form, then refrigerate for some minutes till it solidifies. Use maple syrup or raw sugar for apple stuffing. For the streusel use maple syrup or powdered unrefined raw sugar.
• Sugar: Do use castor sugar or powdered sugar for the streusel layer. Granular sugar does not melt or dissolve and gives a grainy coarse texture which is not pleasant while eating. For the apple filling, you can add granulated sugar, raw sugar, powdered sugar, brown sugar or castor sugar
• Butter: You can both salted butter or unsalted butter. If using salted butter, then skip the salt in the recipe.