flapjack apple crumble

autumn sunshine in November

You know what? I think it is a brilliant recipe. Not because I am putting it on my blog....oh, no. But because it is an answer for my all time question: "why does not apple crumble  have some kind of bottom?"...and  Jamie Oliver came and gave me the answer!
So, just take his new cookery book, add some apples and actually this is the food that you will end up with on your day off. I think, you are not going to regret it.
 Late autumnal comfort food blah blah, which is pretty easy to make (I always say this), quite healthy and perfect after a good plate of hot soup. On the top of this home made custard is (shall I say?) just the perfect icing of the cake,ehm ehm, crumble.
The list of ingredient indeed long but making/baking this crumble is quicker than reading through this list, I promise.

For the flapjack:
50 g nuts (of your choice) - I used shelled, toasted walnuts (thanks to Kiki!)

1 ball of stem ginger (or a thumb size of fresh or 1 tsp of grated)

125g butter
3 tbs honey/golden syrup
175g rolled out (I used wholegrain)
75 g raisins (you can use dried apricot, sour cherries, blueberries, cranberries instead)

For the apple filling:
5 medium apples (cored and sliced into 8)
100 g demerara sugar
ground cinnamon
whole nutmeg for grating
pinch of allspice (mézeskalács fűszerkeverék in Hungarian)

a glug of brandy or rum
300g pitted fresh (or frozen) sour cherries (or blackberries, red currants etc etc etc)

for the crumble:
75g butter
75g (+ 25 g if necessary) flour
50g walnuts
100g demerara sugar


for the custard:
500 ml milk
2 eggs
2 tbs cornflour
2 tbs demerara sugar
fresh vanilla (of one pod) or a sachet of vanilla sugar

Preheat the oven to 180°C and put the toasted nuts into the pestle and mortar and bash them into crumble. Grate or chop the ginger and add to the nuts with the raisins and the oat. Melt the butter and the golden syrup (or honey) and pour on the oats. Stir as long as the whole mixture is coated in butter and all is shiny.
Use a 24 cm long 6 cm high tin and spread the mixture on the bottom of the tin and use your hands (or a spatula) to press it down, and into the corners. It should be around 0,5-1 cm thick. Place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes, until golden brown.

In the meantime, core the apples and cut into 8. Place them into a large pan, with the cinnamon, freshly grated nutmeg, allspice and sugar. Cook for 5 minutes with the lid on, and shakes sometimes so that the sugar does not burn on the bottom (don't stir, since you might break the apples and all you would end of is apple mash). If you use fresh berries, then add to the apples and cook for 5 more minutes but without the lid then take off the heat. If frozen berries are used, then cook with the lid on. Let it cool. Meanwhile, you can make the crumble.


Using your hands rub the cold butter into the flour, sugar and nuts until you have fine crumbs, like beach
sand. - Or to speed things up, you can use a food processor for the same but try not to overwork the crumble.

Spread the apples/berries on the top of the flapjack but save the liquid and put that back on the stove and cook it until it reaches a syrupy consistency (you can add some brandy or rum if you like) Pour the syrup over the apples. This way you can avoid the soaking of the flapjack and you are not going to end up with mushy bottom.


Sprinkle the crumble topping on the apple, then put into the oven for 40 minutes, or until the fruit is bubbling and the top is golden and has the consistency of biscuits.


Last but not least, for the custard heat up 400 ml milk with the demerara sugar and the vanilla. (don't let is boil, just steam) and with the remaining milk beat the eggs and the cornflour. Pour the warm milk over the egg(y) mixture and sieve back into the dish, put on the stove and cook over gentle heat (while stirring all the time) until the custard starts thickening. Take off the heat and while still stirring let it thicken and then cool. (this recipe is from the Candy's blog, thanks!:)


Serve the crumble with a generous pouring of your custard and collect the compliments from your family/friends for this heartwarming food. Be proud, you even made your custard out of scratch in the 21st century...:)!

no, this is not an Alien. Just a close up of the crumble.