Apple Crumble

Frederick, Maryland has several orchards and we get great apples. I asked for a recommendation for baking at the Farmers Market and bought a half bushel of 2nd Jonagolds. I'm not up on my old measurements, but a half bushel is a LOT of apples. I just can't resist 2nd produce, which is produce too ripe or unattractive to sell at full price. You usually can't pick your amounts though.

I made one of my favorite desserts, apple crumble. The crumble I like is very specific and not very common. I had it in England when I was a kid, and I'm pretty sure it came from a box. It's very sweet and has no oats or nuts. I like both, but not in my crumble, which is about sweetened baked apples and nothing else.

It is also the least specific and detail-oriented recipe I make, which is great for people who otherwise might be timid at the thought of baking.

I got the recipe in the late 1990s from SOAR, the Searchable Online Archive of Recipes, one of the best recipe collections on the early-ish Internet.

My sweetie peeled the apples for me, the hardest part of the whole thing. You can leave them on of course.

The he put them through my fab apple slicer from Willliams Sonoma. It was a recommendation from Cook's Illustrated, and works very well. I'll buy a $20 gadget if it helps me and the kids eat more fruit. These were really good apples—both of my kids and I ate slices before they went in the oven.

I measured 1 cup all-purpose flour, ½ cup white sugar, 1 cup brown sugar, 1 stick salted butter, and ½ teaspoon cinnamon into my food processor.

I then processed it until the butter was in small pieces.

I put all the apples in a 9 by 13-inch Pyrex baking dish, then dumped the crumble on top. I would have mixed it in a little if the dish wasn't so full.

Finally, I baked the apples for 1 hour at 350. We ate the apples as soon as they wouldn't scald us outright.

Personally, I eat apple crumble in a bowl with cold milk like cereal. Cream or vanilla ice cream would be great too.

The imprecision comes from the amount of apples. I use any amount of apples I have, in whatever dish they fit in. I make the same amount of crumble each time, but only use as much as seems appropriate. The mixture freezes very well in a zipper plastic bag. I bake until the apples are soft, and raise the temperature if I don't have a lot of time. It's just apples and sugar, so it's hard to screw it up.

I can't wait until the next time I go to the Farmers Market!

Apple Crumble

Serves 8, scales well

½ bushel apples (a lot), cored, peeled if you wish, and in slices or chunks

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup flour

1 cup brown sugar

8 tablespoons butter

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine ingredients until mixture has a crumb-like texture. You can use a mixer, food processor, dough blender, or your hands.

Put apples into a baking dish. Top with crumb mixture.

Bake uncovered approximately 1 hour until tender. Cool slightly before eating.

 

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