Comforting apple crumble

A work colleague very kindly gave me a huge bag full of glorious cooking apples, so ever since I have been dreaming up lots of lovely autumny recipes to use them in. The first thing that came to mind was apple crumble. Surely this is the pinnacle of desserts. It's perfectly simplistic and with its warming and wholly comforting taste, whether you like it with ice cream, cream or custard, it is the perfect way end to and autumn family meal.

serves 6

Ingredients

4 or 5 large cooking apples, peeled and cut into thumb sized pieces
1 tablespoon of soft dark brown sugar
finely grated zest of a large orange
120g plain flour
85g fridge cold butter cut into cubes
4 tbsp golden caster sugar
4 tbsp ground almonds

Put the cut apples into a bowl, add the soft dark brown sugar and the orange zest and mix well. Tip into an oven proof dish. In a food processor put the flour and the butter and whizz until it resembles bread crumbs. Don't overdo this bit, it doesn't matter if there are larger bits of butter still left. Add the sugar and almonds and whizz briefly to mix together. Scatter the topping evenly over the fruit and cook in a 180 degree centigrade oven for about forty minutes.



The orange zest and dark brown sugar give the apples a rich toffee taste which is delicious. Serve warm with ice cream, cream or custard, yummy.

Comments

[Kieran]

It is indeed the time for some comfort desserts! What a stunning shot you took of those apples...

[Sarah Bell]

Thanks. I'm trying to get better at the old camera stuff, although the aperture settings, F stop malarky still confuses me ;-)

[aforkfulofspaghetti]

I think apple crumble was invented for comfort, don't you?

Like the idea of adding the orange zest, BTW

[Emily]

Hi there Sarah!

Your blog is great. I just happened upon it by looking for food sites for Limerick. I have a great friend who just moved to Limerick (from here in Los Angeles) and has a blog about it too (www.ambwinn.blogspot.com). Anyhoo, I wanted to try to get a cake or cupcakes to her, but I am not sure that there is anyplace that you would recommend in town. I would do it myself, but being thousands of miles away doesn't help....If you could email me if you get a chance that would be awesome....
Best!
Emily

[Joie de vivre]

Mmm...orange zest would make it wonderful.

[Tim]

I'm not usually one for sweets, but damn does that look tasty!

[Kitchen Goddess]

Oh that looks delightful, I tend to add oats to my crumble topping but the idea of almonds interests me, I need to try it out.