Recipe

Nannie Crumble

My grandchildren enjoy the apple crumble I make, but call it Nannie Crumble. Here’s how to create it.

Ingredients for crumble
Ingredients for crumble

Ingredients

  • 1 lb cooking apples
  • 3 oz sugar ( 2 oz for the puree, 1oz for the crumble)
  • 2 oz porridge oats
  • 2 oz self raising flour
  • 2 oz butter

Firstly make the apple puree for the crumble. Peel and roughly chop or slice two or three large cooking apples dropping them into water as you go to prevent them from browning.

When all the apples are chopped, take them out of the water and put them in a saucepan. Add some water to the bottom of the pan to prevent the apples sticking – depending on the variety of apple you may need more or less water. Add 2 oz sugar to sweeten the apples. Cook the apples on a medium heat until soft.

I then mash the apples using a potato masher. You can leave them in soft chunks if you prefer. Put the apples in a baking dish.

Pureed apples
Pureed apples

For this particular dish I used 15 ounces of cooked pureed apples that I had prepared from the apples on my fruit trees and frozen earlier this year.

While the apples are cooking you can prepare the crumble. In a basin put equal quantities (2 oz each) of porridge oats, self raising flour and chopped hard butter. You will also need to add sugar – I use half the quantity of sugar to the other ingredients as I do not like the crumble too sweet.

Oats, flour, sugar and butter for the crumble
Oats, flour, sugar and butter for the crumble

Rub the butter into the other ingredients rolling it between your thumbs and fingers until the whole mix is like large bread crumbs.

Rub the butter into the dry ingredients
Rub the butter into the dry ingredients

Sprinkle the crumble mix on top of the apples and bake in a hot oven (190C) for fifteen to twenty minutes until the crumble is golden.

Nannie Crumble ready to eat
Cooked Nannie Crumble

Eat either hot or cold with custard or cream or ice cream.

My grandchildren like eating the crumble cold with custard. I place the crumble in the middle of a dish making an island with the custard. Sometimes I add swishes of custard around the crumble so that it is a flower with custard petals. How do you like to eat it?

Enjoy!

Recipe

Autumn cake with blackberries and apple

What could be nicer than walking in the countryside, picking seasonal fruits, going home and making them into something delicious to eat.

This is what I made using local blackberries and apples from my garden

Blackberry and Apple Cake

Ingredients

  • Eggs – two large or three medium
  • Butter – spreadable is easier for mixing
  • Soft brown sugar
  • Self-raising flour
  • Chopped apples
  • Blackberries

Cooking: 1 ¼ – 1 ½ hours 160C fan oven

6 or 7 inch cake tin, greased and lined with greaseproof paper

Method

Wash approximately 8 oz blackberries – preferably freshly picked – and leave them to drain.

Peel, and chop into small chunks, two medium apples. Put them into a bowl of cold water to prevent them browning.

Weigh, while still in their shells, two large or three medium eggs. This will be the weight you will need of both butter and soft brown sugar.

Put sugar and butter into mixing bowl and beat until smooth and creamy.

Add egg yolks and whites and again mix thoroughly until smooth.

Weigh the flour – it should be the equivalent of the weight of eggs plus a half. For example, if the  eggs weighed 6 oz, weigh out 9 oz flour. (6 + 6/2 = 6 + 3 = 9)

Fold the flour into the mix.

Drain the chopped apples and add them and the blackberries to the cake mix. Stir until all are covered.

Put the complete mix into the lined cake tin and place into the heated oven. Bake for an hour to an hour and a half until a skewer comes out clean. If unsure leave for an extra ten minutes.

Take cake from oven, remove baking tin and leave to cool on wire rack.

Blackberry and apple cake

Eat in slices as a cake or with cream and/or custard as a dessert. Enjoy!