Apple Oat Crumble for One
Tender cinnamon apples under a buttery oat crumble, baked until the topping is golden and the fruit is soft and caramel-toned. A warm, hearty single-serving dessert straight from the oven.
- Total
- 49 min
- Prep 10 · Cook 34 · Rest 5
- Serves
- 1
- Difficulty
- Easy
You'll practice: Dicing · Creaming butter
- Sweet
- Standard
- Comforting
- Oven
Instructions
-
Heat the oven to 200°C. While it heats, peel and core the apples, then cut them into 1.5 cm chunks.
~10 min
Cut the apples into even 1.5 cm chunks so they soften at the same rate as the crumble browns.
Dicing Cut apples into even 1.5 cm chunks so they cook at the same rate; uneven pieces leave some crunchy and some mushy.
-
Toss the apple chunks in the baking dish with 1 tbsp brown sugar and 0.25 tsp cinnamon. Spread them in an even layer.
~3 min
Sugar draws juice from the apples and cinnamon blooms in the moisture, helping the fruit soften and caramelize as it bakes.
-
Rub the butter into the oats, flour, remaining 1 tbsp brown sugar, remaining 0.25 tsp cinnamon and the pinch of salt with your fingertips until the mixture looks like coarse, clumpy crumbs.
~4 min
Rubbing cold butter into the dry ingredients coats the flour in fat, which limits gluten development and gives a crumbly, not tough, topping.
Creaming butter Rub cold butter in with fingertips until the mix looks like coarse clumps; overworking melts the butter and makes a dense, pasty topping.
-
Scatter the crumble topping evenly over the apples, covering the fruit completely.
~2 min
-
Bake until the topping is golden brown and the apples are tender when pierced with a knife, 22 to 25 minutes.
~25 min
The topping browns through Maillard browning while the apples soften; covering with foil later prevents burning before the fruit is tender.
If the topping browns before the apples are tender, lay a piece of foil loosely over the dish and continue baking until a knife slides easily into the fruit.
-
Let the crumble stand for 5 minutes so the juices settle before eating.
~5 min
Resting lets the hot fruit juices thicken and redistribute so the crumble holds together instead of running.