By: Sarah of A Spoonful of Vanilla

I am Sarah, owner of A Spoonful of Vanilla. I am 25 and live in Edinburgh with my partner. I started sharing my recipes on my blog in the hope of inspiring people to bake. Whether it is your first time baking or your 1000th time, all the recipes featured on my blog are suitable for all bakers.

There is also a wide range of recipes from my Cookie Dough Showstopper Cake to Pink Gin Fudge. Whether you are looking to have a fun afternoon in the kitchen or looking to forget what is going on in the world outside for a few hours, I can guarantee that all the recipes on my blog are utterly delicious and a lot of fun to make.

This recipe is the perfect dessert for this time of year. Even just the thought of this recipe makes me want to close the curtains and get snuggled in for the evening. It is absolutely delicious by itself, or why not have it with custard or ice cream?

I have wanted to make this recipe for so long. So when Laura replied to one of my Tweets about guest posts, I knew I had to make this for her blog.

Making the crumble

To make this recipe, I first started off by making the crumble. The crumble is super easy to make. I add the oats, flour, sugar and butter to a large bowl. Using my hands, I rub the mixture between my fingers until it starts to form crumble. This may take a few minutes. I then leave this to one side and prepare the apples.

Making the filling

To make the apple filling, I started by adding water and caster sugar to a large saucepan. I then added the apples, cinnamon and nutmeg. I boiled the apples until they were soft. The water and sugar in the saucepan will caramelise and create a lovely caramelly, flavoured apple. 

Assembling the crumble

Once the apples were lovely and soft I drained any excess liquid and popped them into my baking dish.  Deciding how much crumble and apple mixture you will need will depend on the size of your pie dish. You can increase or decrease this recipe depending on the size of dish.

I added most of the blueberries (you can use frozen or fresh blueberries) and then added the crumble on top. Just be careful as the apples will be hot. I sprinkled them over the crumble and then added the remainder of the blueberries.

Baking

The crumble takes around 35-40 minutes in the oven. It should be golden brown in colour.

I served this dessert with custard and ice cream.

Ingredients

Caster Sugar – I use Silver Spoon

Rolled Oats – I used Quaker Oats

Light Brown Sugar – I used Billingtons 

Plain Flour – I used a supermarket own brand

Butter – I used a supermarket own brand. You can use either unsalted butter or a baking butter like Stork.

Equipment

Scales – It is so important to weigh the ingredients. If you don’t, it could affect the outcome of your bake. For example, not enough oats and too much butter for your crumble will mean that the crumble will clump together in a big ball rather than being drier.

Spatula – I always recommend a spatula. When mixing the apples in the sugar and water mixture, the spatula has a larger surface area than a wooden spoon so makes it easier to ensure that the caster sugar doesn’t burn.

Baking Dish – The size of your dish will determine how much of the recipe you will need. You can increase or decrease the recipe if you need too. The easiest way to do this would be, for example, if you reduce the water by 25mL to cut everything down by 25g. The exact same if you want to increase the recipe, increase everything by the same amount.

Alternative fruit

You can use any fruit you want. Increase the amount of apples to make an apple crumble. Or why not change the fruit in the crumble altogether?

Shopping list

To make the crumble

100g rolled oats

120g light brown sugar

100g plain flour

125g butter

To make the filling

5-6 Large Apples

250ml Water

150g Caster sugar

1tsp ground cinnamon

1tsp nutmeg

150g blueberries

Method

  1. In a bowl add the oats, light brown sugar, plain flour and butter. Rub the mixture in between your fingers until it is all combined and resembles crumble. Leave to one side.
  2. Preheat the oven to 200C (180C Fan).
  3. Peel and chop your apples. I quartered my apples and then cut halved the quarters. Hopefully that makes sense!
  4. I added them to my saucepan and then added in the water, caster sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg and brought to a low simmer for 5-10 minutes on a medium heat until the apples had softened.
  5. I stirred the mixture regularly to ensure the caster sugar didn’t burn.
  6. Drain off the excess liquid, and pop the apples into your baking dish. I sprinkled over 100g of the blueberries.
  7. Next I sprinkled over the crumble and added the remaining blueberries on top.
  8. Bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes or until the crumble is golden in colour and crunchy.
  9. Enjoy with either custard or ice cream!

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