Individual Apple Crumbles

Now is the time of year when the last laden branches and bushes give up their fruits and berries.  For those in the cities, farmers markets and fruit and vegetable stalls display the final bounty before the chill sets in.  While, if you live in the country you can still find homemade stalls resting outside people’s gates, stacked high with the rewards of their gardens, some grown on purpose, others simply nature’s own choice.  I love coming across these stands, reminisce of bits of furniture my sister and I used to play shop with when we were little, they seem so much more inviting for their limited selection and ripe offerings.  It is at these roadside structures that you can find the best of what’s in season and what is most native: dusky, rich plums, the golden arch of squash, and speckled ruby and green apples can all be found at the turn of a country lane.

It is a joy to cook and eat with such produce.  It is also very hard to resist buying a bumper bag of apples when they look so good and cost so little.  Which is I could be found last week, in the kitchen, making as many different things out of my copious crop as I could possibly dream up.  Apples are my weakness; I love them so very much and whether bramleys, discovery, pink ladys or russets, I’m always game for an apple recipe.  I made French Apple Tarts, Apple and Date Cake, traditional Pork Boulangere and a glorious Apple and Maple Cake with frosting which is going straight into book two!  After such a flurry of cooking, I was left with a handful of slightly sad looking eating apples.  They deserved something good to go with them and the humble crumble makes the best of most fruit, whatever their variety, shape and size.  These little individual crumbles are so easy to make and are both delicious and adorable.  I can imagine that children would love them and they make a sweet and simple autumnal pudding.  You can use any variety of eating apples that you like and I really recommend serving them with a pouring of Oat Cream or a dairy free topping of your choice.

The quantities below may look a little odd but I’ve written them in this way so that you can adjust the proportions to equal the amount of apples you have.  You will need 1 ½ tbsp dairy-free margarine, 3 tbsp gluten-free flour and 2 tbsp dark muscovado sugar for each apple you bake.

INDIVIDUAL APPLE CRUMBLES

Serves 4

4 eating apples

For the crumble

6 tbsp dairy-free margarine – Pure Sunflower Spread

12 tbsp Doves Farm gluten-free plain flour

8 tbsp dark muscovado sugar

Pinch of cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 190c.  Mix together the flour, cinnamon and sugar in a mixing bowl and then rub in the margarine until you have a biscuit dough consistency.  Core the apples and slice in half.  Scatter the crumble topping over each apple half and press down lightly with your hand so that it sits closely to the apple.  Bake in the oven for 35 – 40 minutes until the apples are soft and the crumble crisp.

Comments

[maryb]

Is it me or is COCONUT OIL missing from the ingredients list

[Julia]

Yummm, and such a good idea for a few people rather than one big crumble.