Apple pie crumble

If you’d love to make an apple dessert with the texture and flavor of apple pie, without the hassle of working with pastry, then you’ll be excited to try this recipe. There’s a streusel topping for this dessert, so you will get plenty of crumbly pastry bites. It tastes like pie but it takes much less time to prepare.

I typically choose Granny Smith apples for pies but I also mix in a few sweet red apples if I have some on hand. There are so many types of apples and all have different uses. If you choose the wrong kind you might end up with something that borders on apple sauce, so do some research online if you’re not sure which variety to use.

This crumble can also be served, in smaller portions, as a sweet side dish for Thanksgiving or Shabbat. Baked apples pair beautifully with roasted poultry and meat.
This recipe can be made dairy or pareve.

Ingredients:

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For the apple filling:
5 pounds of Granny Smith or a mix of mostly tart apples
Zest from half a lemon, about 1 teaspoon
1 ½ tablespoons fresh lemon juice
½ cup brown sugar
¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon white sugar
1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
⅓ cup all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon kosher salt

For the streusel topping:
1 ½ sticks (12 tablespoons) butter or margarine
⅓ cup white sugar
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon kosher salt

This recipe is easy enough for beginner bakers.

Preheat the oven to 425 F and place the wire rack in the center.

Melt the butter for the streusel topping so that it has time to cool before you mix it with the other ingredients.

Zest half a lemon to get about a teaspoon of zest, then juice half the lemon.

Put 1 ½ tablespoons of lemon juice into a large bowl.

Core, peel and slice each apple into ¼-inch slices and add them to the bowl with the lemon juice.

Every time you slice and add an apple, stir the bowl so that the lemon juice coats all of the slices.

After preparing all the apples, add the brown and white sugars, vanilla and spices to the bowl and stir well. Then add the flour and salt and stir well.

Prepare a 9-inch-by-13-inch baking dish by greasing it with butter or margarine.

Pour the apples into the dish, using your hands to press the apples evenly across the dish, rearranging slices if necessary to fill any holes in the bottom layers.

Cover the baking dish with one layer of tin foil and bake for 35 minutes.

As soon as you place the apple mixture into the oven, finish mixing the streusel topping. Add the sugar to the melted but cooled butter or margarine and mix well before adding the flour and salt. Use a fork to mix in the flour so that there’s a pebble-like consistency with some larger pieces of crumb.

Pop the bowl into the refrigerator until you’re ready for the next step.

When the apples have baked for 35 minutes, remove the pan from the oven.

Reduce the heat to 375 F, uncover the baking dish and sprinkle the streusel topping evenly across the apples.

Put the baking dish back into the oven and continue baking, uncovered, for about 40 minutes or until the edges look like bubbling caramel and the topping is lightly browned. Check to see if there is resistance in the apples by inserting a skewer or fork into an apple slice in the middle of the pan. If you think that the apples need more time to bake but the streusel is already lightly golden brown, re-cover the baking dish with foil and bake for another 10 minutes.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about 1 ½ hours before serving — the baking dish should still feel a little warm at this point.

If you need to reheat this, cover the top with foil to avoid burning the topping.

As I mentioned, this can be served in place of a sweet kugel with your meal but it does not contain eggs like other apple kugels so you won’t get perfectly sliced squares when serving. Don’t bother trying to cut this with a knife — just use a wide spoon to scoop each helping as you would if serving a cobbler.

If you’re serving this for dessert you can also add your favorite dairy or pareve vanilla ice cream to each bowl.

Store at room temperature covered in aluminum foil. The topping will stay firm and crumbly for about two days.

Enjoy and bless your hands! PJC

Jessica Grann is a home chef living in Pittsburgh.