Hi! You may know about me a bit, I’m the Aussie son who lives in Sydney, nicknamed Leonardo in this blog. You may have read my recent interview with my Mum on what goes on under the streets of Paris!

I baked a very special apple crumble last week at work for my co-workers for whom I sometimes cook because there’s a kitchen at work (I’m French so I like cooking!) so I would like to share the recipe and photos of the process.
This is a very slightly modified version of my Mum’s original recipe. Two things make it stand out: less sugar (she taught me to put about half what people would usually put in), and oats to make it crisp and light. In France we use instant hot “Creme Anglaise” by Alsa as a topping which is sort of similar to custard except it’s ten times nicer. Here I couldn’t get some, so instead I used some vanilla ice cream. I recommend the “connoisseur” brand which is like Haagen-Dazs (same creamy dense texture) except half the price – but still twice as expensive as home brands. It’s totally worth it.

Let’s get to the recipe. The ingredients are, for 6-8 people:

• 6-7 apples. Golden are great. Go for some kind of red apples if you can’t get some. Avoid Granny Smith and other acidic apples, they don’t work well
• 1 cup of flour (250ml), preferably wholemeal
• 1 cup of oats (250ml), the type you would use for porridge
• 100+ grams of unsalted butter (half of a 250g package is fine)
• 50-60 grams of sugar, brown

Step 1: peal and cut the apples in 3-4mm thick slices

Step 2: preheat the oven to 200 degrees celsius (7)

Step 3: melt the butter. I went for the wok on low heat because it was the only recipient I had to mix it with the rest after, but otherwise you can just melt it in a bowl in the microwave, and mix in a large salad dish, it’s much faster.

Step 4: add the flour, oats & sugar to the butter and mix until it sticks together

Step 5: put on top of the apples

Step 6: Cook for 30 min at 200 degrees Celsius (7). It has to be a bit brown on the top. Check regularly during the last few minutes. It may take 25 or 35 minutes depending on your oven and the exact quantity. You want it to get darker but be careful not to burn it.

Step 7: Serve hot in bowls and add ice cream or “creme anglaise” or whatever you like on it. It’s also nice plain.

It worked out pretty well!