Apple Cinnamon Crumble
- Sweet
- Oven
Tender baked apples under a buttery cinnamon crumb, golden at the edges and soft beneath. A warm, comforting dessert that needs no leavening to be good.
- Total
- 73 min
- Prep 15 · Cook 48 · Rest 10
- Serves
- 4
- Difficulty
- Easy
You'll practice: Dicing · Creaming butter
Instructions
-
Heat the oven to 180°C. Peel and core the apples, then cut them into 1.5 cm chunks and spread them in a 20 cm baking dish.
~10 min
Dicing Cut the apples into even 1.5 cm chunks so they cook at the same rate; uneven pieces leave some mushy and some firm.
-
Sprinkle the apples with 30 g of the sugar and 0.5 tsp of the cinnamon, then toss so every piece is coated.
~3 min
The sugar draws juice from the apples and the cinnamon coats evenly, so the fruit sweetens and flavours itself as it bakes.
-
In a mixing bowl, rub the cold butter into the flour with a pastry cutter or your fingertips until the mixture looks like coarse breadcrumbs. Stir in the remaining 60 g sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon.
~5 min
Rubbing cold butter into flour coats it in fat, which limits gluten formation and keeps the crumb short and clumpy rather than tough.
Cold butter straight from the fridge keeps the crumb in distinct clumps; if it turns greasy, chill the bowl for 5 minutes before continuing.
Creaming butter Use truly cold butter and stop when the mixture looks like coarse breadcrumbs; warm butter turns greasy and the crumb loses its clumps.
-
Beat the egg with the milk and drizzle it over the crumb mixture, then stir just until it clumps into a soft, spoonable dough. Do not overwork it.
~3 min
Stirring only until it clumps keeps the gluten underdeveloped, so the topping stays tender instead of turning dense and bready.
-
Scatter the crumb dough evenly over the apples, leaving a few gaps so steam can escape.
~2 min
The gaps let steam vent from the fruit, so the topping crisps instead of turning soggy and the apples cook through.
-
Bake until the topping is deep golden and the apples are tender when pierced with a knife, 35 to 40 minutes.
~40 min
If the topping browns before the apples are tender, lay a sheet of foil loosely over the dish and keep baking until a knife slides through an apple chunk easily.
-
Let the crumble stand for 10 minutes before serving so the juices settle.
~10 min
Resting lets the bubbling juices thicken and reabsorb, so portions hold together and the topping stays crisp.
