25th April 2011 was my gorgeous Son Stephen's 21st Birthday, I was determined to celebrate as a family but also realised at that age you do need to let them do their own thing, so the weekend of his birthday he celebrated with his friends and now finally this week we got to celebrate as well.Stephen came to stay on the Wednesday night and we had a lovely family dinner, I made a gorgeous Antonio Carluccio main but a very English dessert just because Stephen loves Apple Crumble and you have to keep the Birthday Boy happy! We had a lovely evening, drank some lovely wine and then off to bed as we were taking Stephen out for the day to Covent Garden the next day to watch the Gumball3000 and had booked a table at Carluccios for 2pm. I was very excited about visiting the flagship store in Covent Garden and adding to my list of Carluccios visited across the country. As usual they didn't disappoint, fantastic food, wonderful service, especially loved the star treatment they lavished on Luca, Luca loves Carluccios anyway, but when they are so lovely to a 9 year old they are on to a winner.
All in all it was a truly wonderful day, the Gumball3000 again this year did not disappoint, even though the rain did try to spoil things, but the energy of the crowd soon brought the sun out and we had a ball.
http://www.gumball3000.com/
So I would just like to wish Stephen a very happy 21st Birthday and buon appetito.
Serves 4
50g English butter
100g flour
100g caster sugar
450g prepared fruit, I used apples, peeled, cored and chopped into chunks
The recipe suggest fresh double cream, but we had ours with gorgeous Cornish ice cream, but would be just as yummy with custard
Rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs, then stir in 50g of the caster sugar
Arrange half the prepared fruit in a 1.1lire pie dish, sprinkle in about 50g sugar, then top with the remaining fruit.
Spoon the crumble mixture over the fruit and lightly press down.
Bake in the oven at 200c, 400f, gas mark 6 for about 45 minutes, until the fruit is soft.
Serve hot or cold.
Now this is the most simple and most traditional crumble recipe, as with any recipe you can adapt and play with it as much as you like.
Here are some idea's:
Little tip here, I happened to be watching the Food Channels that day, OK, I know, I am always watching the food channels, but hey bare with me, this tip is worth it! One of the chefs was making crumble, he just threw all the crumble ingredients into the food processor and had the lightest crumbs ever. If you are adding oats or nuts, just stir through when you have finished processing the mix. I must add that the other chef, Bill Grainger, did the old school method and hardly rubbed the butter in. Both dishes looked amazing, so just do what is easier for you on the day.
I made a delicious caramel sauce for mine, which I poured over the apples and then put the crumble on top, it was heavenly.
You can use any fruit, add oats, nuts, just have fun.
