This easy apple crumble recipe is one of those recipes I’ve been making for years. My mother-in-law gave me the basic crumble topping recipe around 20 years ago, and it has been used countless times since.
It’s a very simple UK apple crumble recipe made with apples and a three-ingredient crumble topping of plain flour, butter and sugar. Nothing complicated, and it’s lovely served warm with custard, cream or ice cream.
Easy Apple Crumble Recipe UK
A traditional apple crumble doesn’t need a long list of ingredients. Once you’ve prepared your apples, the crumble topping takes about 10 minutes to make.
For the basic crumble topping you’ll need:
- 150g plain flour
- 75g butter or margarine
- 50g sugar
You’ll also need enough apples to comfortably fill the bottom of your baking dish.
How to Make Apple Crumble
Peel and core your apples and cut them into reasonably even pieces. Place them in an ovenproof baking dish.
If your apples are quite tart, sprinkle over a little sugar. If they’re naturally sweet, you may find they need very little.
To make the crumble topping, put the plain flour and butter into a bowl and rub them together with your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
Stir through the sugar.
Scatter the crumble mixture evenly over the apples. Don’t press it down. You want that lovely crumbly texture on top.
Bake at 180°C for approximately 30 minutes, or until the topping is golden and the apples underneath are soft and bubbling.
Can I Add Cinnamon to Apple Crumble?
Absolutely.
Apple and cinnamon work beautifully together. Add a light sprinkling of ground cinnamon to your apples before adding the crumble topping.
You can leave it out completely if you prefer a more traditional, simple apple flavour.
Can I Make Apple Crumble With Oats?
Yes.
If you like a little more texture in your crumble topping, replace some of the plain flour with rolled oats. For this recipe, I’d start by replacing around 50g of the 150g flour with 50g of rolled oats.
That gives you an apple crumble with oats while keeping plenty of the traditional buttery crumble texture.
Can I Use Frozen Apples?
You can make crumble with frozen fruit, which is one reason I love this recipe for avoiding food waste.
If you have apples that aren’t going to be eaten, peel, core and chop them and freeze them for another day.
You can also combine apples with other fruit you have available. Berries are particularly good with them.
Can I Make Crumble Topping in Advance?
Yes. In fact, it’s worth making extra.
The uncooked crumble topping can be divided into freezer bags or containers and frozen. When you fancy an easy dessert, you’ve already done half the work.
You can defrost the topping before using it or bake it from frozen, allowing a little extra cooking time if necessary.
What Do You Serve With Apple Crumble?
This is entirely personal preference.
Serve your apple crumble:
- warm with custard
- with pouring or whipped cream
- with vanilla ice cream
- cold on its own
I’m particularly fond of warm apple crumble and custard, but there are no rules here.
A Basic Old-Fashioned Apple Crumble
There is a reason recipes like this get passed around families.
It’s inexpensive, forgiving and doesn’t require any unusual ingredients. It’s also a brilliant way of using apples that might otherwise end up being wasted.
Once you know the basic ratio of 150g flour, 75g butter and 50g sugar, you’ve got a simple crumble topping recipe you can use again and again with whatever fruit you have.
Ingredients
Method
- Rub the butter or margarine into the flour till it looks like breadcrumbs.
- Stir the sugar into the mixture.
- Peal and chop into small pieces 4 medium-large apples.
- Place the fruit into an oven safe dish. Sprinkle with sugar or honey if you want to enhance the sweetness of the apples.
- Cover the fruit mixture with the crumble evenly.
- Bake at 180C for 30 minutes or till golden and crunchy on top.
