Indulgent Apple Crumble

From Cook Vegetarian, November 2013.

I don’t know what it is about apples but whenever we buy them to eat we never seem to actually do that. When I eat an apple I thoroughly enjoy it but to actually take one up oddly seems to require an effort of decision that means the fruit is often left in the bowl. So there had been four pink lady apples in the bowl for a couple of weeks. I decided to cook them would be the best way to get them eaten.

The four apples were peeled and sliced thinly and placed in a casserole. In with them went a punnet of strawberries, washed and halved. I took a few pieces of crystallised ginger, sliced it thinly and added that. Next 100g brown sugar was added and the ingredients were all mixed together and added to a casserole dish.

For the crumble topping I mixed in a bowl 100g cubed butter, 200g plain flour and 75g raw sugar. I now grated 100g cheddar cheese and included this. It seemed an unusual ingredient for a crumble topping but, in actual fact, it worked out very well. The ingredients when mixed together were spread over the top of the apple in the casserole. It went into a 190ºC oven for 30 minutes.

After half an hour the casserole was taken out and about a tablespoon honey was drizzled over the topping. It was returned to the oven for another 10 minutes.

I was somewhat disappointed with this casserole. The apple was not entirely cooked while the strawberries had turned into unappetising lumps. The topping, however, was excellent. It’s a recipe I would return to when making other fruit crumbles.

 Taste: ✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔