Apples are one of my favorite stone fruits. There’s nothing quite like biting into a cold, crisp, sweet apple. Except maybe for a crunchy steaming hot apple crumble with creamy frozen vanilla ice cream on top.
The smell of cinnamon and apples baking in the kitchen is one of the best and most comforting things ever. Apple crumbles like a warm hug on a winter day.
This apple crumble recipe is not your everyday recipe. Instead of using all-purpose flour, I am using a combination of oat and almond flour that makes it so much healthier than regular apple crumble. You don’t have to sacrifice taste to eat healthily.
In this recipe, apples are baked to gooey perfection and topped with a mixture of butter, brown sugar, oat, and almond flour that makes a perfectly crunchy crust on top.
INGREDIENTS FOR APPLE CRUMBLE
- Melted Butter: please do not use margarine for this recipe. Margarine is just hydrogenated oil. Use unsalted butter.
- Oat four: if you can’t find oat flour at your local grocery store, it is very simple to make. Just add rolled oats to your blender and pulse until the oats become powdery flour.
- Almond flour: I like to use superfine flour made from blanched whole almonds.
- Brown sugar: for the top layer, brown sugar is a must. Brown sugar gives apple crumble a caramel-like flavor that can’t be achieved using white sugar.
- White sugar: if your apples are a bit tart, or you want the bottom part of your crumble to be gooey, caramelized, and sweet, add ½ cup white sugar to your apple wedges. When the crumble bakes and the sugar dissolves, it will mix with the juices from the apples to create the most delicious syrup. If you are counting calories, you can bake the apples without this added sugar.
- Apples: there is quite a bit of discussion about the best apples to make the crumble.
- Cinnamon: this is a must-use ingredient for me. The taste is definitely not the same without it. Cinnamon is to apple crumble as syrup is to pancakes.
- Ginger: adds another layer of flavor to the apple crumble. It has a bit of a kick, and it adds a very interesting flavor combination when used with cinnamon.
- Lemon juice: this is a very sweet dessert. A bit of lemon juice gives it a slight tartness that complements that sweetness and gives your taste buds a perfect symphony of flavors.
HOW TO MAKE APPLE CRUMBLE
- Preheat the oven to 350F. In the blender, put 1 ¼ cups rolled oats. Pulse until they become flour-like. In a bowl, mix oat flour, almond flour, brown sugar, and a pinch of salt.
- Add the melted butter and mix until well blended.
- Using a 9×13 inch baking dish, place the apple wedges, sprinkle with cinnamon, ginger, lemon juice, and white sugar. Give them a toss.
- Top with the brown sugar mixture.
- Bake for 50 mins to one hour until the top is brown and crispy.
WHAT TO SERVE WITH APPLE CRUMBLE
Your favorite ice cream! Most people prefer vanilla, but I love it with caramel-vanilla or with vanilla ice cream with caramel and chocolate chips.
Really it’s up to you. Use your favorite ice cream and eat it as soon as it comes out of the oven.
There is nothing like ice cream on top of hot apple crumble and eating while the ice cream melts!
HOW TO STORE APPLE CRUMBLE?
First, wait for it to cool down completely. Place the leftovers into an airtight container and refrigerate them for up to 5 days, or freeze it for 3 months.
Other Apple Recipes You Might Enjoy
Easy Apple Crumble Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 stick of butter, melted
- 1 ¼ cups oat flour
- ¼ cup almond flour
- 1 cup lightly packed brown sugar
- ½ cup white sugar
- 6 apples cored and cut into wedges
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ginger
- The juice of ½ lemon
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F
- If you can’t find oat flour, just put some rolled oats into a blender and give it a few pulses until the flakes become flour. You may have to stop and move the oats around a couple of times to ensure you are grinding every flake into flour.
- Melt the butter. I prefer to do this in a small saucepan on the stovetop. It has happened too often that I put it into the microwave, and it explodes all over. So to make things easier, I do it the old fashion way. If you want to use the microwave, I suggest you do it slowly and don’t put it in for more than 15 seconds at a time.
- In a small bowl, mix the oat flour, almond flour, brown sugar, and a pinch of salt. Mix them, and then add the melted butter. Give all this a nice mix until the mixture resembles sand. Too much butter will result in a soggy crumble, and too little may give you a tough top layer.
- Squeeze half a lemon into a 9x13 baking dish. Core and slice the apples into wedges and add them to the baking dish as well. Mix them with the lemon juice after adding wedges from each apple. When all apples are in, mix in the cinnamon and ginger. Give all this a toss to coat evenly with the lemon juice and spices.
- Top the apples evenly with the sugar/flour crumb mixture and place the baking dish, uncovered, into the preheated oven. Bake for 50 to 60 mins or until the top is brown and crunchy.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
- What Apples Are Best For Apple Crumble? Since apple crumble has quite a bit of sweetness to it, your best bet is to use tart and crisp apples like Honeycrisp or Granny Smith. But, as I said before, I have used Gala, Golden Delicious, or any other apple I have on hand and loved it every time. Remember, we are already adding a bit of lemon juice, which also helps add tartness to the crumble. So buy your favorite variety, they are all delicious, and your crumble will be too.
- What is the difference between apple crisp and apple crumble? For the crumble, the top layer is made with flour. It can be wheat flour, oat flour, or almond flour. This makes for a slight “cakey” top. For crisp oats are used whole, making the top layer more crispy than cakey.
- What is crumble topping made of? It is made of a mixture of butter, flour, and brown sugar, all well blended until they look like sand.
- How does Mary Berry make apple crumble? By mixing sliced apples with sugar, lemon juice, and cinnamon and placing them in a baking dish. Apples are topped with a mixture of brown sugar, flour, and butter and then baked until the top is brown and the apples are tender.
- How do I crisp an apple crumble? Try adding rolled oats on top of the crumble mixture before baking it. The oats will crisp up in the oven, while the crumble layer will remain with a more cake-like consistency.
If you like this Apple crumble recipe, please leave a comment and give this recipe a rating. I would love to hear from you and I truly appreciate your feedback! I will always do my best to respond to every comment ASAP. Thank you for following along! and happy cooking!
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