Apple Crumble

So there were a lot of apples at home and by lot I mean at least 3 to 4 dozens. I wanted something that uses a lot of apples but with less fattening stuff like butter and white flour, yet at the same time should taste awesome. Came upon this Martha Stewart recipe and tweaked it a bit to suit my taste. You should try this, it’s impossible to go wrong with this recipe and its totally healthy, taste’s great too. Like my cousin said, ‘It’s so full of joy, it’s the apple pie equivalent of a baby’s smile.’ Yeah, me thinks he was smoking something too. 

Wheat Flour:  3/4 cup

Oats: 1 cup

Salt: 1/2 teaspoon

Cold Butter: bout 50 gms (you can substitute apple sauce or plain vegetable oil)

Apples (peeled, cored and sliced): 6 or 7 medium sized ones

Cinnamon powdered: 2 to 3 teaspoons

Granulated Sugar: 1/4 cup for the crumble topping and 1/2 cup for the apple base

Orange: juice of half an orange

Take the wheat, 1/4 cup sugar and the chopped cold butter in a bowl. Use your finger tips to break the butter into the wheat, till you get a crumb like texture. Instead of butter you can use plain oil or honey, just go with your intuition… cause unlike cake, this thing is not meant to rise or have a fluffy cake interior. This is just the crunchy coating to the sweet soft warm apples that form the base.

Here is the crumb like texture.

Now drop in the oats, salt and mix it up nicely, squeeze everything together and then stick it in the freezer while you work on the apples. Now is the time to watch your favourite show as you peel, core and slice the apples. I watched an episode of The Wonder Years while I worked on the apples, it was the episode where Kevin visits his dad’s work place for the day. Kevin doesn’t seem to understand why his dad was always in a foul mood whenever he got home from work. At the end of the show, Kevin realises that his dad put family first and that’s why he works so hard… and Kevin isn’t intimidated by him anymore. As always, my eyes filled up with tears as I saw Kevin and his dad bonding over a telescope as they peer into the night sky. This show always manages to touch a cord within you… it is that beautiful and simple, not like the shows of today, where the standard and content have deteriorated with changing times.

I just had to add a picture of Kevin and his dad…

Okay, getting back to the apples… slice your apples into half inch slices, and drop in the cinnamon powder, the 1/2 cup sugar and the orange juice (just take a few pieces of orange and squeeze them over the apples, make sure the seeds don’t fall in). The original recipe calls for lemon juice, but I used oranges and I think this made it even better. You get that distinct orange taste with the sweet caramelized apples, gosh, I loved every bite of this. Give the vessel a nice jolt, shake everything up till all the apples are coated with this cinnamon, sugar mixture.

Now add the crumble topping uniformly over the apples… and bake it for 20 to 25 minutes (at 210 degree C, that’s the temperature I do all my baking) till the apples are soft. You can poke a knife and if it goes in without any resistance then the apples are baked. 

Here it is, just out of the oven and looking great…

There, awesomeness in a dish… I’ve already made this twice in the same week. It’s supremely healthy, I used wheat instead of white flour that the original recipe called for and I cut down on the butter and used honey.

Makes for a great snack, you won’t stop eating it… a dollop of ice cream nearby would make this even more perfect.