Apple Crumble (The Cake the Buddha Ate)

Nothing like a comforting piece of apple crumble hot from the oven with some custard or cream to warm the cockles of your heart on a cold wintry evening with aromas from the spices which are beautifully intoxicating.

I adjusted the recipe slightly by increasing the spice quantities and placing the entire crumble on top of the apples instead of mixing a portion of it in with the apples as with the original recipe in the book, The Cake the Buddha Ate.

Apple Crumble

Ingredients

500g self-raising flour
½ tsp cinnamon – I used 1 tsp
½ tsp mixed spice
½ tsp cardamom – I omitted this as I only have pods
⅛ nutmeg – I used almost ½ tsp
½ tsp salt
250g butter, soft
2 cups brown sugar – I only used 1¼ cups
500g apples, cooked or 1 x 725 g tin – I cooked 4 large red apples in a about 2 tbsp lemon juice and 2 tbsp brown sugar
½ cup raisins – I omitted these because I was plum out of raisins
½ cup chopped nuts – I omitted these because I was plum out of nuts

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C and prepare a pie dish.
2. Gently work the flour, spices, salt and butter together between your thumbs and fingertips to form crumbs.
3. Add the sugar and blend with your fingers to retain the consistency of breadcrumbs.
4. Combine half the mixtures with the apples and raisins, and place in a dish, alternatively just place the apples and raisins in the bottom of the dish followed by the entire crumble mixture on top.
5. Sprinkle over the remaining crumbs and then the chopped nuts.
6. Bake for 45 minutes until golden.
7. Serve warm with custard or cream or possibly even ice cream if it isn’t too much of a wintry night.

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Plum and Apple Crumble

This absolutely scrumptious and ridiculously easy recipe came about when the folks were visiting over Easter.  I had bought a bag of plums from our local veggie man but sadly they were a touch over ripe by the time we got around to eating them and not wanting to throw them away, we peeled and chopped them up with a couple of apples and sugar, simmered until reduced and grated over our family flop proof, super easy sweet pastry et voila, a super moreish dessert, which we served with Celia’s Microwave Custard.

Ingredients

8 plums peeled stoned and chopped
2 apples peeled cored and chopped
½ cup sugar

Pastry

125g butter
½ cup sugar – I used brown
1 egg
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder

Method

1. Place the plums, apples and sugar in a saucepan and bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer until the liquid has reduced and the fruit is soft.
2. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
3. While the fruit is cooking, cream the butter and sugar for the pastry.
4. Add the egg and about 1 tablespoon of the flour and mix well.
5. Add the flour and combine to form a dough and roll into a sausage.
6. Wrap half the sausage in cling film and freeze for another day.
7. Place the fruit mixture into a small pie dish and grate the pastry over the top.
8. Bake for approximately 20 minutes until the pastry is golden brown.