British Pudding Day: Cinnamon Spice Caramel Apple Crumble

Hello! It's Friday - phew. I'm really not a cook or baker, but I like to have a go and sometimes, it works out OK! Today is British Pudding Day, so I have a Autumn British Pudding recipe for you.

[Sorry, did I say I was finished with apples?]

What You Need:

6 Bramley/Cooking Apples

Caramel Sauce:

20g Brown Sugar

20g Unsalted Butter

50ml Double Cream

Crumble:

75g Brown Sugar
25g white sugar

75g Unsalted Butter

125g Plain Flour
1 tbsp Ground Cinnamon

Topping:

Custard / Cream

Time Taken:

Around 1 hour 30mins [about 45 minutes of this was spent drinking tea & watching The Apprentice as it cooked]

Serves:

About 6 healthy portions / 8 trying not too eat too badly before Christmas portions

This was all a little bit trial and error for me, as I had never made the dish before, so I have marked where I would recommend you change the quantity according to your taste, but I hope it does pass the taste test - I'll give you my family verdict at the end! If not, it's worth it just for the smell. The smell is de-lic-ious. Autumny/Christmasy. Perfect.

Caramel Apples:

Wash your apples and core. I roughly chopped my apples, but this is where you might prefer to chop into slices instead, depending on your baking dish and presentation style.

I quartered, cut in half and then cut in half again [creating 16 pieced per apple] each apple and then set aside whilst I made my caramel sauce.

Caramel Sauce:

I used the same method as this post, but slightly reduced the ingredients. Again, this is where you may wish to change according to your taste. The sauce I make in this post is enough to coat the apples and still have a little sauce for the apples to cook in. If you want a sauce to be left after cooking to pour over, or for more sauce to be included with the apple mixture, double the quantities.

Once the sauce has been made, add the chopped apples and simmer. At first, you wont probably think that the sauce will cover the apples, but once the apples start to cook and the juices combine with the sauce, they will be covered in no time.

Stir continuously and gently for around 15 minutes, or at least until you can feel that the apples have softened. They will also have changed in colour:

Before transferring the apples into my dish, I lined the sides with a little butter at the top, where the crumble topping will go - mainly to try and prevent the edges burning [again, a trial and error method, but it seemed to work].

Fill your baking dish/es and press the apple mixture down a little - I fill around 2/3 full with the apple mixture - for reasons explained below......

Cinnamon Crumble:

For me, the crumble part is just as nice as the apple part, so I make the ratio around 2 [apples] parts:1 [crumble] part - if you would rather a smaller, healthier ratio - this is where you may want to adjust your quantities. This crumble uses brown sugar to add to the chewy, caramel flavour and the white sugar adds a bit of crunch, however; if you prefer more traditional crumble, maybe just add the white sugar for crunch.

Mix the butter, sugar, cinnamon and flour - you can either use a mixer [but I would rather not have the washing up] or just get your hands stuck in there - until they resemble breadcrumbs. Ta-da - done.

Not everyone is really keen on cinnamon - this quantity provides a subtle, little taste of the spice and isn't overwhelming at all. If you are a fan of the taste, double the quantity.

Sprinkle over the top [generously, in my case] of your apple mixture.

Pop your apple crumble into a pre-heated oven at 180 for 20/25 minutes [the timing will depend on the size of your baking dish/es] - just keep an eye to catch it before the edges start to burn - the topping should be lovely and golden and the apple mixture bubbling at the edges and in this case, a few apples poking out of the top.