Recipe - Family Favourite Apple Crumble

Yep, as the name suggests, this is a real family favourite for me.  My Mum has made this Apple Crumble for as long as I can remember and now my girls love it too.  This crumble is not the same as you might buy ready-made, or even as I've had it in restaurants before.   The crumble is much more ... well ... crumbly, which I love.

Anyway, when I recently had some spare granny-smith apples that were going to spoil if I didn't do something with them, I decided this was the perfect use for them, and Daddy and the girls didn't complain one bit!!

Here's how I made it ...

Ingredients:

This makes 4 individual-sized servings.

For the apples:

- 6 Apples ... I used Granny-Smiths, because that's what I had, but I have used pretty much any apple for this recipe and it works great!

- 2-3 tablespoons sugar (depending how much of a sweet-tooth you are!)

- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

- water

For the crumble:

- 2 cups rolled oats

- 1/4 cup brown sugar

- 1/4 cup melted butter

- Optional extras: 1/2 cup desiccated coconut, or 1/2 cup flaked almonds lightly toasted 

Method:

To prepare the apples:

1. Peel and core the apples, then dice and place into a medium-sized saucepan.  Add the sugar and cinnamon, then enough water to just cover the apples.

2.  Simmer the apples over a medium heat, stirring occasionally, for approximately 15-20 minutes, or until the liquid has reduced and the apple is cooked soft.  It will look something like this when it's ready...

3. Spoon the apple evenly into 4 ramekins or other oven-proof dishes.  You can totally use 1 large dish instead of individual portions.  I have a square pyrex dish that works great for this.

For the crumble:
1.  Place oats, sugar and almonds/coconut (if you're using them) into a medium sized bowl, and mix well.

2.  Stir through the melted butter until well-combined.  The mixture will still be relatively dry, and that is fine.

3.  Spoon the crumble evenly over the apple in each dish, and flatten the surface using a spoon.  

4.  Place the ramekins on an oven tray, and bake in the oven at 200C for approximately 15 minutes, or until the crumble on top is just lightly golden.

5.  Serve with ice-cream or custard.  We usually eat it as a warm dessert (great for our wintery weather in Australia at the moment), but this is also really yummy as a chilled dessert.  Just refrigerate after baking, and serve it cold!  The crumble soaks up some of the apple goodness, and it's just divine!  Enjoy!!