Yesterday was a very busy day for me, which explains why I was MIA. But fear not, I managed to squeeze some baking time in between running errands and going to see Inception (which was ABSOLUTELY AWESOME, I must add!)

So given that I had so little time, I decided to bake the one of the easiest desserts known to mankind – the apple crumble. However, I also thought to myself that just a plain a simple apple crumble that I could pretty much whip up in my sleep would be too simple to be worth blogging about, so I decided to try a new crumble recipe, one that’s very very different from my go-to recipe, one that required EGG in the crumble batter! Which I thought was very odd but decided to go with it anyways. From the sound of its name –“Best Apple Crumble Ever,” I thought I might be onto something great. But to my disappointment, the crumble was very sticky and not at all crumbly, which was not surprising due the one egg used. How could I think it might be a good Idea to begin with? Silly me!

So I decided to whisk up another batch of my old and true crumble friend, which turned out as buttery and crumbly as I like my crumble to be. But to prevent it from being too simple, I wanted to add something. As I looked around my kitchen, I spotted a giant crate of longans from our garden in the North. A light bulb went off in my head and off I went to raid the boxes.

Given that I’d already mixed my apple with the brown sugar and cinnamon; I got a gut feeling that the crumble would be a tad too sweet once the longans were added. But I wanted to try my idea out so bad, that I did it anyway. And it turned out GREAT. Yes, it was on the sweeter side, and I would cut out the sugar next time. However, the longans went surprisingly well with the brown sugar and the cinnamon! Half of the giant tray of apple/ longan crumble that I made was gone by the time I came home. Yay! =)

So here’s the recipe, the first one is for the one I did not use the crumble. And the second is the crumble recipe I always use.

Best Apple Crumble Ever – By Olga from Allrecipes.com

Ingredients

4 apples – peeled, cored and sliced (use 3 instead if you are adding longans)

100g (3 oz) dark brown soft sugar

125g (4 oz) plain flour

150g (5 oz) caster sugar (use 100-125 g. instead if you are adding longans)

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 egg, beaten

2 tablespoons butter, melted

1 cup of longans, peeled and seeded

Preparation method

1. Preheat oven to 190 C / Gas mark 5.
2. In a 23cm (9 in) square baking dish, mix sliced apples (and longans) with brown sugar.

   

   

3. In a large bowl, mix together flour, caster sugar, cinnamon and salt. In a small bowl, beat together egg and melted butter. Stir into flour mixture.
   



4. Spread evenly over apples. (At this point I saw how the crumble was all gooey, so I proceeded to the next recipe.)
   
5. Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes, or until topping is golden and crisp.

Apple Crumble by Merrilees Parker

Ingredients

1. 300g/10½oz plain flour, sieved pinch of salt
2. 175g/6oz unrefined brown sugar
3. 200g/7oz unsalted butter, cubed at room temperature
4. Knob of butter for greasing
5. Filling:
6. 450g/1lb apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1cm/½in pieces
7. 50g/2oz unrefined brown sugar
8. 1 tbsp plain flour
9. 1 pinch of ground cinnamon

Preparation Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
2. Place the flour and sugar in a large bowl and mix well. Taking a few cubes of butter at a time rub into the flour mixture. Keep rubbing until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.(I used this part instead)
   
3. Place the fruit in a large bowl and sprinkle over the sugar, flour and cinnamon. Stir well being careful not to break up the fruit.
4. Butter a 24cm/9in ovenproof dish. Spoon the fruit mixture into the bottom, then sprinkle the crumble mixture on top.
5. Bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes until the crumble is browned and the fruit mixture bubbling.
6. Serve with thick cream or custard.

Bon Appétit!