Rhubarb and apple crumble
This crumble will make a great dessert for the whole family – the topping is generous so there will be plenty to go around. You can use either cooking or eating apples – cooking apples collapse when cooked, whereas eating apples will keep their shape and texture, so choose your favourite or simply use up what you’ve got.
Ingredients
- 600g/1lb 5oz eating or cooking apples, peeled, cored and chopped into 2–3cm/¾–1¼in chunks
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 75–95g/2¾–3¼oz caster sugar
- 400g/14oz rhubarb, trimmed and chopped into 3cm/1¼in chunks
- 175g/6oz plain flour (or 125g/4½oz plain flour plus 50g/1¾oz rolled porridge oats)
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- 100g/3½oz butter, at room temperature and cut into small pieces
- 125g/4½oz caster or light soft brown sugar, plus 1 tbsp for sprinkling
Method
To make the filling, put the apples in a large saucepan and drizzle over the lemon juice and 4 tablespoons of water. Stir in the caster sugar, using 75g/2¾oz for eating apples or 95g/3¼oz for cooking apples.
Cover with a lid and place the saucepan over a medium heat. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until syrupy and softening. Take off the heat, stir in the rhubarb and tip the mixture into a wide 2 litre/3½ pint baking dish.
Preheat the oven to 190C/170C Fan/Gas 5.
To make the topping, place the flour, cinnamon, butter and sugar in a large bowl. Rub together with your fingertips until it has a rough, crumbly mixture. Scatter the crumble over the top of the fruit, then sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of sugar.
Bake the crumble for 35–40 minutes until the top is golden and crisp and the fruit underneath is bubbling. Leave to cool for 10 minutes before serving with ice cream, cream or custard.
Recipe Tips
The crumble can be baked straight away or chilled for up to 24 hours before baking.
Most packs of rhubarb weigh about 400g/14oz so that is the quantity in the recipe, but if you’re growing your own, feel free to add one or two more stalks plus a teaspoon of caster sugar per stalk.
As the rhubarb season is short, and pink rhubarb season even shorter, here are some variations to use up excess rhubarb in crumbles:
Ginger, rhubarb and apple: Swap the ground cinnamon for ground ginger, or dice 3 balls of stem ginger and stir it through the cooked fruit before topping with crumble.
Rhubarb, apple and coconut: Swap 50g/1¾oz plain flour for 100g/3½oz desiccated coconut.
Rhubarb, apple and blueberry: Reduce the rhubarb to 300g/10½oz and add 125g/4½oz fresh or frozen blueberries to the fruit mixture, just before adding the crumble topping.
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