Easy Apple Crumble Recipe (2024)

Jump to Recipe

Perhaps one of my all-time favourite desserts. This apple crumble recipe is easy to make yet incredibly comforting, especially when smothered in warm custard.

I love mine to have a warm, spicy taste, so I add a generous helping of cinnamon, but if you don’t want to, you don’t have to. Also, some people suggest boiling the apples before cooking them, but I don’t bother, I find they come out too mushy, and it ruins the texture of the finished product.

Nothing can beat a homemade apple crumble. Shop-bought ones always seem to lack the flavour (not to mention you hardly get any!)

Everyone in the family loved it and agreed it was the best apple crumble they had tasted.

Easy Apple Crumble Recipe (1)

What’s The Difference Between Crumble, Crisp and Cobbler?

Apple crumble, apple crisp, and apple cobbler- you’ve probably heard of all three but might not know the difference between them.

An apple crumble is originally from England, typically made with flour, sugar and butter, with a fine, crumbly topping.

Cobbler is an American dessert, typically made with flour, sugar, butter and oats; the topping is a biscuit or pie dough.

And finally, a crisp is essentially the same as a crumble, but the topping is made with oats, which also crisps up when cooking, giving it its name.

Can I Add Rhubarb?

Yes, if you want to make rhubarb crumble instead. Add ten sticks of rhubarb, cut into 1-inch chunks, and add 80g of sugar to a saucepan, and boil until soft, adding more sugar if you want the rhubarb sweeter. Then, continue with the recipe as normal.

You could also add in some fresh blackberries to make an apple and blackberry crumble.

How To Make Apple Crumble

Start off by adding the flour to the bowl. To make sure it mixes in well, add in the cinnamon now.

Next, mix in the butter until it resembles breadcrumbs.

Here, if you’re in a hurry, you can use a bit of a cheat, but it might sacrifice the texture slightly. Once you’ve started combining the ingredients, you can use an electric mixer to do the rest for you, but make sure to add more flour if the crumble is sticking together in balls of dough.

Easy Apple Crumble Recipe (2)

Peel all the apples, cut out the bruises you often find with cooking apples, and slice them into slices 5mm (1/5 inch) thick.

If you want, you can make the slices a different thickness, but make sure you are consistent, or else the texture of all the apples will be different.

Easy Apple Crumble Recipe (3)

Place the apples in the baking dish (a ceramic or Pyrex dish works best), and sprinkle with 1 tbsp. demerara sugar to take out the bitter and acidic taste of the cooking apples.

Easy Apple Crumble Recipe (4)

Add the cinnamon to achieve that iconic warm, hearty taste associated with apple desserts. I really love cinnamon in desserts; if it’s not your thing, then feel free to leave it out or add in slightly less.

Easy Apple Crumble Recipe (5)

Cover evenly with the crumble, and bake in the oven for about 40 minutes when the surface should have coloured to a lovely golden brown.

Easy Apple Crumble Recipe (6)

Serve with custard or ice cream for the best experience, and be careful, as it may all be gone quicker than you think!

Easy Apple Crumble Recipe (7)

Apple Crumble

Yield: 4-6 servings

Prep Time: 40 minutes

Cook Time: 40 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes

Nothing beats a warm, hearty apple crumble, and it's very simple to make. Perfect with fresh custard.

Ingredients

  • 300g plain flour
  • 200g demerara sugar
  • 200g butter, chilled, diced
  • 2 tsp cinnamon (for the crumble)
  • 3 or 4 medium bramley cooking apples, depending on dish size
  • 1 tbsp demerara sugar (for the filling)
  • 1 tsp cinnamon (for the filling)

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas mark 4/350°F
  2. Add the flour and cinnamon to a mixing bowl, and mix.
  3. Add the chilled butter.
  4. Rub the flour and butter together between your thumbs in a mixing bowl until they resemble breadcrumbs.
  5. Add the sugar, and toss the crumble to integrate all of the sugar.
  6. For the filling, peel all the apples, and slice to about half a centimetre thick.
  7. Place the apples evenly in the baking dish, and sprinkle with the 1 tbsp sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon.
  8. Cover with the crumble mixture, but make sure not to compact it.
  9. Bake for 40 minutes, or until golden-brown on the surface.
  10. Serve with custard or ice cream and enjoy!
Nutrition Information:

Yield: 4Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving:Calories: 624Total Fat: 28gSaturated Fat: 17gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 8gCholesterol: 72mgSodium: 217mgCarbohydrates: 91gFiber: 5gSugar: 48gProtein: 6g

Did you make this recipe?

Please leave a comment on the blog or share a photo on Facebook

You Might Also Like:

  • Apple and Cinnamon Cake
Easy Apple Crumble Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How do you keep apples from getting mushy in crumble? ›

Sauteing the apples prevents a soggy topping

If you've ever had an apple crumble that wasn't crunchy, it's because the fruit was not pre-cooked before baking. Adding the apples raw to the baking pan will steam and release too much moisture.

Why add lemon juice to apple crumble? ›

This is known as oxidation and occurs when the cells within the fruit are exposed to air. Lemon juice helps with this, acting to coat the flesh and protecting it. It also adds extra flavour to your apple crumble recipe and offsets the sweetness of the sugar.

Why is my apple crumble topping not crunchy? ›

The main reason your crumble topping isn't crunchy is probably because you haven't used Demerara sugar. Although, it could also be that you've got your topping ingredient quantities wrong: either too much or not enough flour and butter alongside the sugar.

How do I stop my crumble from getting soggy? ›

Not enough butter, and your topping will be a dry, floury mess. Too much butter and your topping will become a greasy blob or disappointingly soggy. Some recipes will ask you to cut in cold butter along with your dry ingredients, resulting in pea-size pieces that are sprinkled across the hot fruit filling.

What happens if you put too much butter in crumble? ›

If you use more butter than the recipe calls for, the crumb topping will be melted and greasy. If you don't use enough butter it will be dry and floury.

How do you thicken apple crumble filling? ›

Cornstarch has thickening power similar to Instant ClearJel. Like flour, it lends a cloudy, semi-transparent look to filling. It can also give filling a starchy taste. For full effectiveness, make sure the pie filling is bubbling up through the crust before removing your pie from the oven.

How to tell when apple crumble is done? ›

Bake for 40–45 minutes until the crumble is browned and the fruit mixture bubbling. Serve with thick cream or custard.

Why put baking powder in crumble topping? ›

A crisp contains oats in the topping, while a crumble does not. Baking powder can also be added to a crumble topping (like it is here) to ensure it's extra light and tender.

What is crumble topping made of? ›

Crumble topping is a combination of only 3 simple ingredients: butter, flour, and sugar. It adds the perfect sweetness and crunch to any muffin, quick bread, or pie!

What is the apple lemon juice trick? ›

To use this method to prevent apples from turning brown, create a water bath for your apple slices with a ratio of 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to 1 cup of water. Soak the apple slices for 3 to 5 minutes, then drain and rinse them. This simple step should keep your apples from browning for several hours.

How do you make apple crumble less watery? ›

The best way to prevent a watery apple crisp is to use a thickener in the filling – some recipes use flour, but I've chosen to use cornstarch in this recipe (or arrowroot starch, which can be substituted 1:1 for cornstarch) because I think it provides superior thickening power.

What does cornstarch do in a crumble? ›

Then, make sure to bake the crumble long enough so that the fruit filling comes to a profuse simmer at the edges of the pan. This shows that the cornstarch has been activated enough to thicken the juices, turning them supple and silky.

Should butter be cold for crumble? ›

Use cold, cubed butter.

Making the crumble with room temperature or melted butter will cause the topping to spread as it bakes, rather than creating a landscape of craggy, crunchy sweet pieces. Using cold butter will help all the crumble ingredients bind together before baking and then saturate them evenly in the oven.

How to get crumble crunchy? ›

They're supposed to be chunky and craggy, with big pieces of crumble on top. By freezing your topping, it makes it harden just slightly and that means the texture will be nice and crispy when it's cooked.” To do this properly, you first need to make sure that the topping is still a little lumpy.

References

Top Articles
Latest Posts
Article information

Author: Maia Crooks Jr

Last Updated:

Views: 5495

Rating: 4.2 / 5 (63 voted)

Reviews: 86% of readers found this page helpful

Author information

Name: Maia Crooks Jr

Birthday: 1997-09-21

Address: 93119 Joseph Street, Peggyfurt, NC 11582

Phone: +2983088926881

Job: Principal Design Liaison

Hobby: Web surfing, Skiing, role-playing games, Sketching, Polo, Sewing, Genealogy

Introduction: My name is Maia Crooks Jr, I am a homely, joyous, shiny, successful, hilarious, thoughtful, joyous person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.