Apple Crumble

I had a hardened packet of light muscovado sugar and didn't know what to do with it. It was rock hard and I wasn't going to break my spoon chipping away at it. I remember reading a tip somewhere that if you put in a slice of apple, it will soften up the sugar. Well, no harm trying. I left the slice of apple there for about 6 hours and it really softened up the sugar! However, the downside is that part of the apple juice seeped out and made it soggy. I was afraid it would go mouldy so I transferred the dry bits into another container. But what was I supposed to do with the soggy melted sugar?

Just happened that I bought Granny Smiths. Brown sugar, apples and cinnamon = apple crumble!

So here's the recipe, also thanks to something learnt off the Internet, the proper proportions for crumble = 3 parts flour : 2 parts butter : 1 part sugar.

Ingredients
4 cooking apples (Bramleys or Granny Smiths), peeled. Quarter them, remove the core and then thinly slice each quarter, about 4 or 5 slices each.
60g muscovado sugar, packed tightly
180g flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 pinch salt
120g butter, softened at room temperature and cut into cubes
60g caster sugar (or damerara for the crunch if you have it)
2 tsp cinnamon powder
2 tbsp flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
zest of 1/2 lemon
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 cup raisins

Method
1) In a mixer, add the flour, caster sugar and butter and blitz until a fine crumble. Set aside in the fridge to rest.

2) Add the muscovado sugar to the apple slices, together with the lemon juice, cinnamon powder, 2 tbsp flour, vanilla extract, zest and lemon juice. Mix well and add the raisins, before mixing well again. Be careful not to break up the apple slices.

3) Layer the apple slices in a pie dish.

4) Pour on the crumble and pinch it together so that it resembles biscuit crumbs rather than fine powder.

5) Preheat the oven. Bake at 180 deg C for 40 mins or until the top is golden and the filling is bubbling. Be careful because it can go from golden to burnt very fast! Serve with ice cream or whipping cream.