Long ago on our honeymoon, we stayed at the Connaught Hotel in London, a bastion of comfortable English tradition. They served what I considered then, and still do, the finest of fruit crumbles. It was served very hot and had a thick golden crumb topping that was baked on top of perfectly cooked and sweetened fruit. Although the crumb topping was crisp on top, it remained pleasantly soft in the middle.
Ingredients
Makes 6 servings
Fruit filling
Crumble topping (Makes about 3 cups crumbs)
Prepare the Filling
Step 1
Position a rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Put the apples in a glass or ceramic baking container with a 2 1/2-quart capacity. Either an 8- or 9-inch square baking dish or a 9 1/2- to 10-inch diameter round pie dish, both with 1 3/4- to 2-inch high sides, works well. Mix the sugar and cinnamon together in a small bowl. Sprinkle the sugar mixture and lemon juice over the apples. Stir the mixture to combine the ingredients, spreading them in an even layer in the baking dish. Set aside.
Mix the Topping
Step 2
Put the flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl and use a large spoon to stir them together. Add the butter pieces, stirring to coat them with the flour. Rub the butter pieces and flour between your thumb and fingertips or cut them together with a pastry blender until coarse crumbs form that are about 1/2 to 3/4 inch in size, there is no loose flour, and the mixture looks pale yellow rather than white. Spread the crumbs evenly over the apple mixture.
Bake and Serve the Crumble
Step 3
Bake about 40 minutes until the crumb topping is golden but with a few spots of light brown, and the apples are tender when tested with a toothpick. Let the crumble cool about 15 minutes before serving. Spoon the warm crumble onto individual plates and serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, if desired. The crumble can be baked a day ahead, cooled, covered, and stored at room temperature. Warm it, uncovered, in a preheated 250°F oven for 15 minutes.
Leave a Review
Reviews (26)
Back to TopThis is my go to apple crumble but I haven't written a review for years. I made it today so I thought to write something. Well, it was perfect! Served it with warm custard, British style ;-)
Anonymous
London, UK
11/4/2018
This is my go-to crumble recipe! Quick, easy and tasty. I've done it at least 5 times by now (within 3 mths), and each time it gets better (says my husband). I shaved the frozen butter (thanks to a tip found here) into the flour on my 2nd attempt using my lemon zester as it fits in the mixing bowl and this definitely saved me lots of time and effort, and i had fun too! I do use slightly more flour than the recipe called for, other than that, it's a great recipe. On a side note, i think i might just make a huge batch of crumble (pre-baked) and freeze it for easy access in the future.
Anonymous
Seattle
10/30/2011
A nice, easy crumble recipe. I personally would have enjoyed more of the crumble part to balance out the apples. I used one and a half times the amount of cinnamon and sugar because I thought the original amount wasn't enough to cover the apples. I ended up with a good amount of watery juice at the bottom of my pan, I don't know if my apples had a lot of moisture in them. Though it is not a stunning dessert, all my friends enjoyed eating it and complimented my recipe!
Anonymous
Waterville, ME
4/30/2011
Used 600g frozen blend of berries. Was really delicious and very quick and easy. Served in bowls with whipped cream.
Anonymous
Halifax, Nova Scotia
1/30/2011
This a good basic crumble recipe, you can build on easily, it turned great for me. But on another note, I dont know what KelleyKPeters problem is, she had to post 77 times! the exact same comment, but strangely she varied her star rating from 2 to 3 stars?! You have to go to pages 7, 8 and 9 to find the real commenters and get past this serial spammer/commenter, gee thanks kelley. I hope epicurious can fix the problem.
Anonymous
Seattle, WA
9/20/2010
用苹果代替黄色非常成熟的桃子。Had serious browning/crust-sinking issues. Still tasted delicious (ended up broiling it for the last few minutes to force-brown), but I have cooked better crumble recipes.
kelleykpeters
Washington, DC
7/5/2010
用苹果代替黄色非常成熟的桃子。Had serious browning/crust-sinking issues. Still tasted delicious (ended up broiling it for the last few minutes to force-brown), but I have cooked better crumble recipes.
kelleykpeters
Washington, DC
7/5/2010
This is one of the best and fast recipes. Needs no changes. Into oven in 20 minutes depending how fast you can peal apples. Has been served to many with great reviews. Great with vanilla ice cream.
Anonymous
fairfax staion, virginia
11/10/2009
Easy and delicious. Great fall recipe and a classic.
Anonymous
burtonsville, MD
10/11/2009
This was so-o good and quick and easy, too. I did use some oatmeal (1/4 c) and the topping turned out crunchy.
Anonymous
bremerton, wa
9/21/2009
Excellent, simple recipe. Made in the food processor. bumped up salt to 3/4 t. and added handful of rolled oats. Substitute nectarines, blueberries and tri-star strawberries instead of apples when in season or plums, apricot peaches and strawberries with 1 T microplaned fresh ginger.
jeff09
8/10/2009
Baking at 450 for 15 minutes and then turning the oven down to 350 takes care of the browning issue. I also substitute light brown sugar in the crumble mixture and butter the dish. I've baked this crumble using mixed frozen berries, frozen peaches and frozen mangoes. I've also used fresh baking apples. This is an excellent recipe.
rburguiere
Danbury, CT
11/19/2008
I used 1 pound bags each of frozen cherries and frozen peaches instead of the apples, defrosting them until they were generally room temperature. I, too, grated the butter into the flour mix. For whatever reason, the crumble never browned, but it was still delicious and very easy.
jilbait
Nashville, TN
7/4/2008
I used buckwheat flour and salted butter & margerine because I didn't have anything else. It came out great. I had it with whipped cream. Lovely and easy. I'll make it again.
Anonymous
London
12/17/2007
This is a classic crumble, perfect for a winter evening. I grated the butter into the flour as an earlier reviewer suggested.
janakisx
Philadelphia
11/12/2007
