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| Apple Crumble Squares |
Those close to me would know that I have been craving all things apples of late – apple crumbles, apple pies, apple tarts..you name it! I finally got around to satiating my craving after putting it off for weeks. It was a toss up between Jamie Oliver’s Apple Pie and this recipe that I bookmarked quite some time ago. The crumble recipe won this round, largely due to my sheer laziness in making pastry from scratch!
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| (shredded apples, dry ingredients, wet ingredients, crumble and crust) |
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| (Top: shredded apple and crust; Below: crumble and apple layer ) |
Leaving that aside, I must say that whoever came up with the idea for Apple Crumble Squares is a friggin’ genius! Warm apple and cinnamon crumble in a convenient form which to me is the perfect on-the-go dessert. (It’s been what’s keeping me sane during my painfully long commute to work this week! And yes, I am guilty of having dessert as breakfast and believe me, having sugar whilst stuck in traffic can turn a grumpy driver into a cheerful, positive-I’ll –sing-along-to-Beiber- because-his-new-song-is-awesome type of individual. You have been warned!
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| (Evenly spread the apple mixture to cover the entire surface of the crust; sprinkle crumble generously all over the apples) |
The only difference I made to the original recipe was to reduce the amount of sugar used as some of my family members found the squares to be a tad bit too sweet. If you think that the adapted amount may still be too much, you can perhaps use green apples which will help cut through the sweetness.
Oh I also added an additional teaspoon of cinnamon to the apple mixture, well because..I love cinnamon!
Apple Crumble Squares
Adapted from VeryCulinary.com
Makes 9-12 squares depending on how you cut it
Ingredients
380 g plain flour
160 g brown sugar
25 g granulated sugar + 50 g granulated sugar
2 tsp cinnamon + 1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
225 g cold butter, cubed
4 medium sized apples, peeled, cored and grated
2 tsp cornflour
Juice of half a lemon
Method
- Pre-heat oven to 180C. Grease and line a 9" by 13" pan and set aside.
- Peel, core and grate the apples. Pour lemon juice over the apples to prevent browning.
- Mix plain flour, 25 g granulated sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl.
- Work in the butter and egg with your hands until the dough resembles pea-sized clumps. Make sure no plain flour remains at the bottom of the bowl.
- Press half the dough into the bottom of the pan ensuring that it is evenly spread out.
- In a separate bowl, squeeze all the excess juice from the apples and mix in the 50 g of sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon and cornflour.
- Spread the apple mixture all over the crust layer evenly.
- Sprinkle the remaining dough all over the apple layer.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the top layer turns golden brown.
- Cool completely before cutting into squares.