So, I know the last post looked pretty good, and sure it was passable, but last night, I achieved perfection!!!!
So my inspiration for getting this family recipe right was 
So, what did I do differently?
- This time I dedicated a lot more time to rubbing and kneading the crumble to ensure even consistency.
- I precooked the apples with cloves (which I will place in a muslin bag or tea strainer next time because fishing them out was a pain in the arse- worth the flavour though)
- my apple to crumble ratio was absolutely perfect. The base cooked beautifully and was also just a bit crunchy and there was plenty of dough left over to cover the top.
So, the secret recipe?
This made two apple crumbles.
For The filling
- 1kg of granny smith apples, peeled and diced into small cubes
- about two tablespoons of cloves (I recommend putting them in something that strains them, so you don't have to fish them out later)
- about 4 tablespoons of raisins per crumble
- sprinklings of cinnamon, nutmeg, and sugar, according to taste. I used about a tablespoon of each, but it's up to you. I was a little bit more conservative with the nutmeg since the cloves already gave quite a strong flavour.
The Crumble (for both crumbles= x 2 you can halve the entire recipe if you only want one, but if you're going to all this effort, you may as well make a spare :p)
*700 g of all purpose flour
*500g of butter
*450g sugar
Method:
I peeled and chopped the apples and put them on to boil in a pot with the cloves (covered with water and popped a lid on).
Then I worked on the crumble. Your butter needs to be soft enough to work with. I recommend taking it out of the fridge a few hours before, if you can. You can also use short bursts in the microwave but BE CAREFUL because you just want to soften it, not melt it. This part is quite fun because you literally get in there with your hands and rub/ knead the ingredients together until completely combined and it forms a crumbly dough.
I then took the apples off the boil and strained them. I then had the fun task (not recommended) of fishing out the cloves. No one wants to actually eat a clove, so it was vitally important to find them all.
I then lined two dishes with the crumble dough to form my base, using about a quarter of the dough for each. You do not need to bother going all the way up and lining the sides. Press firmly and even it out to make a good sturdy base.
I then layered each dish with my cooked apple, the raisins and the sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
I then covered it all with crumble. Make sure you have enough crumble to cover the top completely. The dough should crumble easily in our hands, so you almost sprinkle it on the top. Once again, make sure you have enough (a quarter each of the total dough for each topping) to ensure good coverage and to ensure a nice crispy topping without any gaps.
Lastly, I sprinkled a wee bit of sugar and oats on the top as this aids with the crunch and the browning process in the oven.
The oven was preheated to around 200 degrees Celsius and I baked each one for around 40 minutes, until golden.
And TADA! PERFECTION!
The crumble was firm but light and the filling was absolutely perfect. The ratio was 100% gorgeous this time. Sleeping last night was uncomfortable with my "giant food baby" - made after stuffing my face! I don't think any of us could move actually 😜
Serve warm with vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, or custard <3
