Ingredients

The following ingredients have 6 Servings
  • 200 g plain white flour ((US - all purpose flour))
  • 100 g cold butter (cut into roughly 1cm cubes)
  • 100 g soft light brown sugar
  • 1 kg cooking apples (peeled, cores removed and chopped into small pieces)
  • 4 tablespoons mincemeat ((roughly - it's fine to use a little more or less!))

Instruction

  • Preheat your oven to 200C /180C fan / gas mark 6 / 400F.
  • Put the flour and butter in a large bowl and rub together until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs (or do this in a food processor if you prefer).
  • Add the sugar and stir. (There is no need to sieve the flour or sugar as a bit of a rough texture is what is needed for a good crumble!)
  • Set the crumble mixture to one side and prepare the apples. Peel them, remove the cores and then chop into bite-sized pieces – roughly 1cm / ½inch square – but it doesn’t matter too much, actually a mixture of smaller and larger pieces is quite nice.
  • Put the apples in the dish you are planning to use to cook the crumble and add 4 tablespoons of mincemeat. Stir together the apples and the mincemeat until the apples are evenly coated in mincemeat and the dried fruit is fairly evenly distributed.
  • Sprinkle over the crumble topping – this can be quite rough and ready, but make sure all the fruit is covered. If it looks a bit too neat on top, rough it up a bit. You want lots of peaks and troughs to give it that really good crumble texture.
  • Put your crumble in the preheated oven for 40 minutes or until it is golden on top and the fruit is bubbling. Serve with custard, cream or ice cream... or, if you want to make this even more festive, brandy butter / brandy cream!