Apple Crumble

Pork and apples go so well together but I often find it’s a bit too much of a stretch to get the kids to eat apple sauce with their pork chops. Because apples contain so much citric acid and pectin, they cut through fatty meals very well so if you have a heavy dinner, apple crumble with a little low-fat yoghurt is a great way to finish a meal.

I don’t know about you but having a nice pudding or “puddy” as it’s called in our house (thanks Dad) is handy for bribing kids to eat their meal. I love that this is fruit based.

When I was 5 our moved to  live in my father’s family home. It was a home that his father, my grandfather had built with hopes and dreams for his  young family many years before that.

My grandmother, used to grow all sorts of fruit in the gardens at the house, but as we grew older the strawberry plants, raspberry canes, and blackcurrant bushes waned. The espalier fruit trees that my grandparents had planted outside still thrive and are fruiting at the moment.

Last Sunday we gathered as a family to say goodbye to the family home. My parents are moving on now; they have no need for such a large space anymore. They now have 8 grandchildren (not all my children I hasten to add!), and excepting the newest (my 9 week old nephew), and the reluctant teen the rest ran around the garden making the most of the good weather.

Dad lifted his bonny grandkids up to pick their own apples for the last time, and my 3-year-old munched and crunched to his heart’s content. My love of apples comes from this simple action of reaching up and picking when they are ripe. I never knew how lucky I was when I lived with my parents. We’ve already planted 1 apple tree in the past year, and I’ve resolved to plant many more since.

I’ve lived in my home for almost as long as I lived in my childhood home now, I’ll always call dessert “puddy” though.

[recipe title=”Apple Crumble” servings=”4-6″ time=”1 hr” difficulty=”easy”]

Ingredients

• 2-3 large cooking apples
• 1 lemon
• 100g caster sugar
• 50g butter, softened
• 100g wholewheat flour
• 100g porridge oats

Method

Preheat your (fan) oven to 160 degrees Celcius.

Fill a large bowl with water and squeeze in the juice of the lemon straight into the water. Peel, core and chop each apple into bite-sized chunks and submerge the pieces in the lemon water. This will stop them from turning brown.

In the meantime rub together the butter and wholemeal flour until you get a breadcrumb like texture. Then add 50g of caster sugar and the porridge oats and stir. Set to one side.

Layer a large ovenproof baking dish with half the apples. Sprinkle 25g caster sugar on top, then repeat with the second half and the rest of the sugar.

The next part is key to making great crumble. Sprinkle the crumble mixture over the apples from a height. Do not press it down or compact it in anyway.

Bake in the oven for 45 minutes and serve with yoghurt, cream or custard.[/recipe]