Sweet Adventures: Sweet as Pie – Apple Crumble Pie

It took me approximately half a second to decide how to participate in this month’s Sweet Adventures Blog Hop. This month the theme is ‘Sweet as Pie’ and being hosted by KC from The Capers of the Kitchen Crusader.

Actually, I was largely influenced by the fantastic looking Free Form Apple Tart recently posted by another of the Sweet Adventures Hostesses, and my good friend Christina from The Hungry Australian, and was in the mood for some baked apple goodness myself.Apple crumble is an old family favourite, although I haven’t had it in many years I was curious how it would go as a pie.

I remember doing the preparations for apple crumble with my family around the dining table, each with a vegetable peeler trying to make the longest apple skin ‘snake’ without breaking it.As my other half doesn’t eat any cooked fruit I was in for a treat – all the apple crumble I could eat, limited only by the time it would take me to fall into a sugar coma.

I decided on the safer route of making only a small number of mini apple crumble pies, using a muffin tray lined with puff pastry. Each pie was filled with approximately one quarter of an apple, thinly sliced, and covered with crumble. Easy!

Growing up, all of the family favoured the crumble part of apple crumble. The method that I copied from my mother’s trusty recipe book includes directions to double the crumble. When I made my micro version of apple crumble (scroll down to the end of this post for the full recipe) I used less than one eighth the quantity of fruit with one quarter the quantity of crumble, and I still wondered if there would be enough of the crumble.APPLE CRUMBLE RECIPE

Note: To make into a pie add a sheet of puff pastry underneath the rest of the ingredients.

Ingredients for the apple part:
*       8 apples, peeled and sliced
*       1 teaspoon cinnamon
*       1/2 cup water

Ingredients for the crumble part:
*       1 cup sugar
*       3/4 cup plain flour
*       3 tablespoons butter

Method:

1. Lightly grease a pie dish, line it with a sheet of puff pastry if you wish.
2. Arrange the apple slices in layers in the pie dish, or inside the puff pastry.
3. Pour the water mixed with cinnamon over the apples.
4. Put all the crumble ingredients in a mixing bowl, use your fingers to rub the butter into the dry ingredients until it is all crumbly.
5. Spread the crumble over the apples.
6. Bake in a moderate oven, 180 C, for approximately 30 minutes, or until nicely browned on top.

To go to the host page to be able to see the other entries in this month’s Sweet Adventures blog hop click here.