I’ve been making a lot of apple crumble/crisps this year and I keep on forgetting my ratios, which then sends me on an Internet research hunt and then I make things up all over again. So I’m writing some things down!
My current preferred approach to the crumble topping:
- 1 cup of oats
- 1/2 cup of pecans, chopped
- 1/2 cup of walnuts, chopped
- 1/3 cup of all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup of buckweat flour
- 1/4 cup of brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp of salt
- 1/2 tsp of cinnamon
- 6 or 7 tbsp of unsalted butter, cut into pea-sized pieces and chilled
Mix it all together with your hands, pinching the small pieces of butter with your fingertips. Pour on top of your fruit mix and evenly spread it out.
Variations on the fruit:
When rhubarb is in season, I like to do a half-rhubarb, half-apple mix. I’ve occasionally added strawberries, but I think I generally prefer without. In the Fall, instead of rhubarb, I start using cranberries.
Here is last night’s mix:
- 4 apples (honeycrisp) peeled and cut into bite-sized chunks
- 2 pears, peeled and cut into bite-sized chunks
- 1.5 cups of fresh cranberries
- 1/2 cup of sugar
- 1 tbsp of corn starch
- pinch of nutmeg
- few pinches of cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground ginger
- zest of 1 lemon
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
In a large bowl, mix the sugar, corn starch, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, and lemon zest together. Peel and chop up the apples and pears, stirring them in as you add. Stir in the cranberries and finally the lemon juice. Pour into your baking dish, add the topping, and pop into the oven.
Bake at 350F for just over an hour.