Bramley Apple Crumble with Crème Anglaise – Core Blimey

Bramley Apple Crumble with Crème Anglaise

What do you do when your brother-in-law gives you a bag of huge Bramley apples from his garden and all you've been eating for the past two days has basically been pork pies? The answer, especially on a cold and dark autumn evening, has got to be make apple crumble and custard. Of course, I could have just whacked it all together and served it with some Bird's, and by god, it would have been good. I mean, it's not really hard to make – I'm pretty sure, along with scones and pizza, it's a staple dish of every home economics class of every school in the country (well it used to be. It's probably all falafel and lentils these days). On the other hand I could have made it even better by making a crumble as served by gastropub The Oak near Notting Hill, and crème Anglaise by some chefy bloke called Gordon Ramsay. I have to say, the lemon and orange zest worked particularly well on the crumble topping (which is partly pre-cooked before adding to the apples) and was a nice twist.

Oh, and do you know what the best thing is about this dish? I think it tastes even better cold the following day. Cheers for the apples, Baz. 


For the apple crumble:
Ingredients:
6 large Bramley apples, peeled and diced
225g unsalted butter
50g soft brown sugar
1 cinnamon stick
2 star anise
115g plain flour
zest of 1/4 unwaxed lemon
zest of 1/4 unwaxed orange
30g ground almonds
55g muscovado sugar

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 190C/375F/gas 5. In a heavy-bottomed pan, sauté the apples in half the butter. Add the soft brown sugar, cinnamon stick, star anise and cook for 10-15 minutes until the apples are caramelised and soft.
2. Make the crumble by putting the flour and remaining butter in a food processor and whizzing until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in lemon and orange zest, almonds and muscovado sugar.
3. Spread crumble on a baking tray and cook in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove and fluff up with a fork. Put the sautéed apples in an ovenproof dish and cover with the crumble. Cook for 15 minutes until the topping is golden. Serve hot or cold with crème Anglaise.

For the crème Anglaise:
Ingredients:
250ml whole milk
250ml double cream
50g caster sugar
6 large free-range egg yolks
2 vanilla pods

Method:
1. Add milk and cream to a heavy-based pan. Split vanilla pods lengthways and scrape seeds into pan and add pods. Heat gently, making sure it doesn't boil.
2. While heating, beat sugar and egg yolks with a balloon whisk until thick and pale.
3. As the liquid comes to the boil, remove from heat and strain slowly onto the eggs and sugar, whisking constantly. Discard pods.
4. Pour back into a clean pan and gently heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon to desired thickness.