Exclusively Food: Apple Oat Crumble Recipe

For a warming winter dessert, you can't beat apple crumble – tender chunks of apple with a crunchy oat topping – served hot from the oven with ice cream or custard. Granny Smith apples are a good choice for this recipe as their tart flavour pairs nicely with the sweetness of the crumble. The uncooked crumble mixture freezes well so can be made in bulk or just kept on hand for making single servings when the mood strikes.

For accuracy, we use digital scales to weigh all ingredients. Volume measurements are given in Australian Standard cups (250ml) and spoons (20ml tablespoon, 5ml teaspoon). We use salted butter unless otherwise stated.

Preparation time: about 30 minutes (excludes baking time)

Serves 6–8

1.2kg (about 8 medium) cooking apples, such as Granny Smith
125g (1/2 cup) water
55g (1/4 cup) sugar

Crumble Topping
150g (1 cup) self-raising flour
110g (1/2 cup) caster sugar
50g (rounded 1/2 cup) rolled oats
115g cold butter, roughly chopped
75g (2/3 cup) roughly chopped walnuts

Peel, core and cut apples into eighths. Place apple in a large pan with the water and 55 grams of sugar.

Cover pan and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer gently, stirring occasionally, until the apple is nearly tender. This could take 5–10 minutes, depending on the size of your pan. Some of the apple may collapse to a pulp but you want most of the pieces to retain their shape.

Tip the apple into a shallow 1.5 litre baking dish (ours measures 26cm long by 20cm wide by 4.5cm deep) and spread evenly to cover the base.

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius (160 degrees Celsius fan-forced). You'll need the oven rack in the middle shelf position.

Stir the flour, sugar and oats together in a large bowl. Add the butter.

Use your fingertips to rub the butter into the dry ingredients until thoroughly combined. The mixture should resemble coarse breadcrumbs. Add the walnuts and mix to combine.

Squash the crumble mixture into clumps with your fingers as you sprinkle it over the apple. This helps to create a nice chunky texture in the baked crumble.