I'm not really a big baker-living alone it often seems like a lot of effort for stuff which will then need eating for the next week (I still have a couple of brownies left from the #ConfinedCookalong). In light of that this post may seem like a latecomer to the lockdown baking party but I have been considering making Apple Crumble for a while.
I don't eat a lot of apples but I have two apple trees in my garden. Each year I leave most of the apples to windfall and the local wildlife but it seems a waste not to harvest at least some of them. These apples have been sitting in a basket on my kitchen counter and getting in the way so it was time to do something with them. Having something to distract from the doom scrolling was a secondary motivation.
The recipe is a simple one from Tesco real food with a few tweaks-some from necessity and some from taste. My apples weren't Bramley so I added a little lemon juice as well as the sugar (granulated as I didn't have caster) to the pan to soften them. I also added a little cinnamon and nutmeg to add a little more flavour.
The crumble topping was a simple sugar, flour, butter mix with a few rolled oats for added texture.
I washed up as I went and the crumble is now in the oven while I write this post. The preparation, washing up and blogging has given me at least a 30 minute break from looking at social media sites.
Now to find distractions for the rest of the day (I do have Strictly to catch up on).
Ooh, lovely. A crumble can be a very comforting thing.
ReplyDeleteYes comforting nostalgia is what 2020 needs.
DeleteThis seems like very strategic baking, and rather delicious.
ReplyDeleteI do know what you mean about solo living and baking. I loved Confined Cookalong, but I had to offload half mine to the parents. It's not something I could do weekly, or really even monthly (though December will mean baking *something*, I am determined). But a crumble seems like just enough effort and plenty of fruit for your trouble!
I'm telling myself it counts as one of my five a day. Right?
DeleteConfined Cookalong was great way to justify the effort of baking. I need to investigate the feasibility of homemade stollen for December.
I thoroughly approve. When catering for just myself, I have been known to make a batch of crumble mix, store it in a tub in the fridge - with fruit in another tub - and assemble and bake mini-crumble in a ramekin when I want some (which is likely to be every day until it's used up.) I once ate pear and chocolate crumble 3 (or was it 4?) nights in a row.
DeleteI was thinking of your crumble post as I wrote this.
DeleteIf my husband sees this post he's going to be demanding apple crumble!
ReplyDeleteI take no responsibility!
ReplyDelete