Apple Crumble: the recipe for making a perfect apple crumble

Apple crumble is very easy, warm recipe to make when fall starts. It is a quick dessert that you can start to enjoy in fall. The filling is made of apples are cut into small pieces, are flavored with cinnamon and then covered with a crunchy, crumbly topping.

Apple crumble might look like apple crisp, but they're slightly different. In the United Kingdom and Australia the two terms refer to the same dessert, while in Canada and the United States they're considered different. Apple crumble and apple crisp are both a baked fruit dessert with a layer of topping. Unlike the crisp that use a oat or nut topping, the crumble uses a streusel topping made of flour, sugar and butter.

Delicious and easy to prepare, it is perfect to enjoy in the coldest months of the year. It is a recipe loved by adults and children, delicious but healthy. It is perfect for any time of day, from breakfast to snack, but also as a dessert at the end of a meal, served with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream, which goes very well with cinnamon. To pose as true English lords, combine this dessert with English cream, a typical accompaniment for apple crumble in Anglo-Saxon land. No tricks, follow the procedure step by step; here is the original recipe for the English apple crumble.

Apple Crumble Origins

The apple crumble is a dessert of English origin. It seems to have been born during the Second World War, when food was scarce and the population began to invent tasty dishes with the poor and simple ingredients that were available. In this case, the dessert was made to replace the more classic and substantial apple pie made with puff pastry, born in the United States of America and its national dessert.

Generally, it should be accompanied with the English cream, that is the custard prepared without flour, but over time even in England they began to serve it with cream or ice cream.

What are the best apples for Apple Crumble?

For this recipe, we recommend using tart, green apples, or Granny Smith but you can choose the type of apple that best suits your taste.

Tips for the Best Apple Crumble

To make your topping extra crunchy not to leave out sugar. Make sure not to use too much flour or butter.

To prevent the filling from becoming watery, prefer tart apples. Pectin has a lower pH value that reduces the chance of apples becoming soft and watery once cooked. Also flour helps so don't skip it.

You can flavor the apples with orange zest or with vanilla too.

You can replace the butter with olive, seed or coconut oil for a light version of this apple crumble. For the original recipe, however, you will have to use butter; oil is not a typical culinary product of Great Britain, where the use of animal fats is preferred, as often happens in countries with a harsh climate.

Apple Crumble Variations

Being a traditional dessert, over time many alternative variants of the apple crumble were born, all good and easy to prepare. The important thing is to always use fresh and seasonal fruit. In summer you can cook an excellent peach crumble, while in May a cherry crumble.

Vegan Apple Crumble

The vegan variant of this dessert is also very tasty. After preparing the apples in a pan with cinnamon, lemon juice, margarine and brown sugar, you can proceed to make the crunchy coating using rice flour, brown sugar, a drizzle of corn oil and oat flakes, working these ingredients always with your hands and in order to obtain a crumbled mixture. To make everything tastier, add pine nuts and chopped walnuts or hazelnuts according to your tastes. Serve with a scoop of vanilla soy ice cream;

Gluten-free apple crumble

In this case for the crunchy part you can use rice flour, corn foil and cane sugar, to be mixed together with the butter to obtain the typical mixture of this traditional English dessert. You can also join gluten-free muesli or crumbled gluten-free dry biscuits to achieve greater crunchiness;

Light apple crumble

Light in this case means apple crumble without butter. To obtain a dessert with a lower amount of calories than the traditional recipe, you will have to eliminate this ingredient. Next, cut the apples into cubes and season with cinnamon and lemon, then mix the top with grains and brown sugar and cover the apples with this. You will get an equally satisfying result;

Apple almond crumble

In the bowl where you are mixing the flour, butter at room temperature and brown sugar with your fingers, add the chopped almonds for an even tastier result. This variant can also be made with other types of dried fruit, such as walnuts and hazelnuts;

Apple chocolate crumble

In this case just add the chocolate, even white, into small pieces to the basic crumble recipe, mixing everything with a spoon.

How to store the apple crumble

We suggest you taste this dessert as soon as it is ready, to prevent it from losing its characteristic crunchiness. If you have little time available, you can prepare the crumble in advance and the apples later (otherwise they would risk blackening).

How to make apple crumble

Grease an ovenproof dish (1).

In a bowl, combine the flour and salt (2). Then add butter and brown sugar.

Start working the ingredients with your fingertips (3). You can also use an electric mixer.

Continue until you have a crumbled topping (4). Transfer to the refrigerator for half an hour.

Meanwhile, peel and core the apples, cut them into wedges and then into small pieces directly in a bowl (5).

Sprinkle with the lemon juice (6). Toss apples with sugar, flour, cinnamon and salt.

Transfer the apples to the baking dish (7).

Spread the topping over apples (8).

Cover all the apples with a topping around 2 cm thick. Level with the back of a spoon by pressing lightly (9).

Transfer to a preheated oven at 350° F and cook for about 1 hour or until the center bubbles. If the top darkens, cover the dish with foil. Once ready, let the apple crumble cool (10) before serving with ice cream or whipped cream. Enjoy!