Apples from Gran and a Crumble with Cream

Gran called in today with a big basket of the greenest apples I’ve ever seen from my Uncle’s trees. I love it when people bring us fruit and vegetables from their gardens. There’s something really old-fashioned about it and I think it always tastes so much better than anything you can buy in the shops- but I’m sure a big part of that is because I know it’s fresh and hasn’t been treated with anything nasty.

We have some friends staying over tonight so I’ve made a big Apple Crumble with some of the lovely apples. This is my favourite apple pudding, probably because we ate it so much when we were little and it was one of the first puddings I learnt how to cook. I think the simplicity of it is its real charm and that also means there are so many ways you can alter it to make it your own. I like to add cinnamon, stem ginger and raisins to my apples which I coat in a butterscotch sauce before topping them in a crumble of brown sugar, oats and whole wheat flour. The latter give it quite a nutty depth of flavour and allow me to trick myself that, as far as puddings go, it may be half good for me!

Cinnamon Butterscotch and Apple Crumble

Serves 4

Ingredients

For the Apple filling:

1.2 kg Cooking apples, peeled, cored and cut into chunks

50 g Brown sugar

4 Tablespoons water

2 Teaspoon cinnamon

100g Raisins

 For the Butterscotch Sauce:

200g Soft brown sugar
200g Golden syrup
75g Butter
225ml Double cream
75g Crystalised ginger, chopped into 1cm approx' dice

For the Crumble:

150 gWholewheat flour
100g Self raising flour

75g Oats

150g Brown Sugar

150g Butter (softened)
Half teaspoon baking powder

Recipe

1.       Put the apple filling ingredients in a saucepan and heat them over a medium heat until the apples are soft and fluffy.
2. Add all the butterscotch ingredients to a saucepan and heat over a medium heat for 5 minutes until the butter melts and all the ingredients have been incorporated-take care not to let the mix catch the bottom of the pan as it can burn easily. Combine the apple mix and the butterscotch mix and spoon the finished mix into a shallow dish;

2.       For the crumble, add all the ingredients (exept the sugar) to a mixing bowl and rub in the butter using fingertips until the mix is crumbly and the fat has been evenly dispersed. Stir in the sugar.

3.       Spoon the crumble over the fruit and spread it out evenly-don't press it down though. Bake for around 30 minutes until the top is slightly browned. Let it cool very slightly before you serve it;

4.       I like this with cold double cream or a dollop of vanilla ice cream.