Apple Crumble

Joining Sweet Punch was one of the best decisions of my life! Coz I have been on a baking spree ever since. I feel ecstatic realizing the fact that I have been baking goodies whose names I hadn't remotely heard of in my life. We IT employees are always at the edge of a sword to fulfil work within deadlines. I have deadlines in Sweet Punch too. I need to post the recipes on 7th of each month... Well, these deadlines are much sweeter and dearer with a worthy end product we could relish. (At work, our customers relish our end product, nevertheless that too gives a different kind of satisfaction)

This time Divya placed a challenge of making Pear crumble. Since I couldn't manage to find pears I substituted with apples. I didnt know crumble would turn out. I blindly followed the recipe. I didnt know when to stop baking coz the recipe instructed to bake till 'golden and bubbling'. And my crumble was not bubbling uniformly. The adhoc bubbles left me puzzled whether I was to stop there or continue. I baked for 10 extra minutes than what the recipe called for and then stopped at the fear of a burnt crumble. The pics are not up to the mark. Like the saying goes 'Appearances are deceptive', the crisp crust and a 'oh-so' soft base of apples was a combo to die for. The presence of chocolates, almonds and lemon made it even more special. We all loved it even without vanilla ice-cream.

Ingredients:

1kg (4-5) ripe apples, peeled, cored and chopped into 1cm pieces

50g light brown soft sugar [ Can substitute with regular sugar]

Grated zest and juice of 1 unwaxed lemon

100g Swiss milk chocolate, roughly chopped

For the crumble:

100g plain flour [ You could substitute this with Whole wheat flour too]

50g butter, chilled and diced

50g light brown soft sugar

50g blanched almonds, lightly toasted in a dry pan and roughly chopped

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C, gas mark 4. Grease 6 ovenproof teacups or ramekins or a pie-dish.

2. In a medium bowl, mix together the pears, brown sugar, lemon zest and juice, and half the chocolate.

3. Divide the mixture between the teacups or ramekins, spooning over any juice. 

4. To make the crumble, place the flour and butter in a medium bowl and, with your fingertips, rub together until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar, almonds and remaining chocolate. 

5. Spoon the crumble over the pears and press down lightly. Place the crumbles on a baking tray and bake for 30-40 minutes until golden and bubbling.

6. Serve with a scoop of good vanilla ice-cream.