A is for Apple

A slice of warm apple crumble from Calendar's

Apples are quinntessential fruits.

Why do I say that? Open your fridge, and tell me if there's at least one apple sitting there. I know most people keep apples in their fridges. When my parents go fruit shopping, apples are a no brainer.

I have apples at home everyday. Sometimes it's red Royal Gala, and other times, it's green Granny Smiths. Dad loves buying fruits and it's always fun when he gets into his 'fruit-crazes'. Sis and I always have a good laugh about it when we reminisce the times when he would buy home huge amounts of papayas, or mangoes; depending on the season. Seriously, I kid you not! Apparently when he is in an 'orange' mood, there'll be loads of oranges in the fridge. It's quite fun actually. That's one reason why I love to open the fruit compartment in my fridge. Sometimes I'll be surprised by a lovely ripe mango or some starfruits and on certain days, just plain 'ol apples.

Apples are awesome, in my perspective. Afterall, they do keep the doctors away, no? Some like theirs crunchy but I like mine soft. Weird eh? When I mean soft, I mean a soft bite - those tend to be sweeter. Crunchy hard apples have a more tangy bite. Hmmmm haha that's applogy talk! I like apples by itself but I think the best way to have them in dessert form is a la pie or baked.

Baked apples exude a certain sweetness that simply hits home. It's that homey feel you get - the warm and soft sweet flesh that goes so well with cinnamon, brown sugar and raisins. Mmmmm.... Superb. Although I like apple pies I haven't made them. Have only made apple crumble and just recently, apple cobbler.

Today I want to talk about both apple crumble and apple cobbler. I'm really fascinated at our ability to play around with flour and come up with so many variations of something good and simple.

Those of you who bake often might know the difference between a crumble and a cobbler. A crumble is when you mix dry ingredients like oats, cinnamon, brown sugar and flour with butter till coarse crumbs form and then you simply sprinkle them over your prepared fruit dessert. Cobblers however, are usually made with wetter ingredients like milk and eggs. So what you pour on top is usually a wet batter that covers the entire surface of your fruit dessert.

I know crumbles and cobblers aren't exactly common desserts found in Asian countries like Singapore so I was ecstatic when Calendar's sent me a huge 1.7kg apple crumble to try. You might remember me posting about their carrot cake the other time. Well their chocolate cake and apple crumble is really worth a mention as well! But I'll comment on their apple crumble today.

Calendar's uses coconut in their crumble topping, which gives it a nice sweetness which I love!



They make theirs with fresh apples (duh!) and plenty of raisins and cinnamon. I really like my cinnamon so naturally, I adored their apple crumble. Once again, my family was won over by their apple crumble. Let me tell you, we finished the apple crumble within 2 days! Can you imagine? hahaha... I told you my family eats well.



Tastes even better warm. Dang, I wish I had some vanilla icecream to go with it. If you haven't tried apple crumble in your life and are simply too lazy to make one yourself, please do yourself a huge favour and order one from them. You have my promise that you won't regret it! Have I ever lied?

Since that apple crumble, I've been thinking alot about apple desserts. And it helped that we had so many Granny Smith's at home the other day. Mum asked me to quickly eat them. But I thought, hey instead of forcing myself to chomp on all of them (haha, okay, it wasn't as if she wanted me to finish them all), I thought why not make some apple crumble. However, I realised I didn't have coconut or rolled oats and I wanted to try something different anyway so I googled for an apple cobbler recipe and found one easy one. It called for walnuts too and I happen to have some at home so in I went to the kitchen and within an hour, we had some yummy Apple Walnut Cobbler to chow on!



I sliced the apples really thinly so you can't really see them here. But it tasted really good. Simple and so easy to make.



Honestly, I didn't know the difference between an apple crumble and an apple cobbler until I tried out this recipe. I mean, i've always heard of peach and blueberry cobbler but I never really thought or researched into how they were made. But hey, we learn something new everyday, no?

Oh and I change my mind.... - A is for Awesome Apple Crumble/Cobbler. I love my apples! :)

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Apple Walnut Cobbler

Ingredients:
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 cup walnuts -- coarsely chopped
4 cups tart apples -- thinly sliced
1 cup flour -- sifted
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg -- beaten
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1/3 cup butter -- melted

Directions:

Combine the sugar, cinnamon, and 1/2 cup of the walnuts. Spread the sliced apples in the bottom of a greased baking dish (8x8). Sprinkle the apples with the cinnamon sugar mixture.

Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt together in a small bowl. In a large bowl, combine the egg, evaporated milk, and melted butter. Stir in the combined dry ingredients and mix until smooth. Pour over the apples in the baking dish. Top with remaining walnuts.

Bake at 325F (170 degree celcius) for 50-55 minutes or until golden brown. Serve with ice cream or whipped cream.

This recipe for Apple Walnut Cobbler serves/makes 6

Apple Crumble

Growing up, I was exposed to an entire bevy of literary reads that ranged from mythical legends to cottage tales and the world of magic & suspense.

Afternoons and nights were spent with my nose buried in pages thick with imaginative stories that never failed to enchant me.

Yes, I was that sort of kid - the bookworm. haha. You could try but you can never pull me away from a book. Enid Blyton and Roald Dahl ranked high on my hot favourites list, and I have them to thank when it comes to finding a reason for my love of the literary word.

Both authors honed my imagination and I can never forget those stories with an English slant. The more I read Blyton's tales, the more I became enamoured by the traditional countryside setting that she most often uses. Think hot piping chimneys, gnomes, elves, lovely grannies and who can forget: pies and crumbles! Yes yes... there's always a hot apple pie cooling by the window sill and sometimes a hungry kid or elf will come stealing the pie.

I probably didn't think much of it then, but looking back, I think this is perhaps one of the many reasons why I've always wanted a quiet peaceful lifestyle like that. A quaint English cottage complete with fireplace and chimney, fine china tea cups with a pretty tea pot to match (not forgetting scones, raspberry conserve and clotted cream), an apple tree, a wooden swing, plus a sparkling pond/lake with elegant swans and a tree house, oh not forgetting a bird house with seeds for the little robins and sparrows and whoever who wants to 'visit' (squirrels included).

SOUNDS very much like a far fetched fantasy but I've got to say; this is really what I have in mind eventually. Oh, forgot to mention a lovely French kitchen! Complete with copper pots, ramekins, cocotte and a KitchenAid. I will have a huge oven and and and a wood fire oven for my thin crusted pizzas. Geez I really am dreaming big. What can I say, I'm an ambitious young lady. I'm thinking of afternoons spent baking, and enjoying my homebaked scones, croissants and apple crumble over English Breakfast Tea or Vanilla Tea for that matter, with my neighbours and friends.

What's with me waxing lyrical about my cottage-y dreams on this food blog? ha, I don't know, really! I was just reminded of it when I set out to try this simple apple crumble recipe a few days ago. When you're sick, and you're stuck at home, there's nothing much you can do but cook, and bake!

Seriously! I get so bored that I just wake up and open my recipe books, trying to see what I can whip up - that's my major source of motivation to get well soon. And I'm glad to say that this 'therapy' of sorts has worked! hahahaa.... sounds hard to believe but it has. I attribute it to lemon chicken risotto, apple crumble and some other foods (like fish porridge and soup noodles :)

Boy am I back into the whole baking and cooking frenzy. I just made onde onde and banana bread yesterday. My onde onde is purple!!! And I'm soooooo excited about it. Am going to rave about it in my next post. It's all natural, mind you - i used no artificial colouring. Stay tuned to find out what the secret is (actually, it's not that much of a secret if you know your groceries. hahaa). The banana bread turned out fine too! but more about that later.

I'm supposed to be talking about apple crumble now, which I love by the way. Then again, what's new huh? Dessert must be my second name :) Anyway, this apple crumble is dead easy to make. When baked, the natural juices and sugars from the apples secrete and the end product makes for a soft, tender bite. I used green apples so mine was a mixture of sweet and tart. I added extra oats to the crumble mixture because, well, I love oats and I like my crumble crunchy. You don't have to add that much sugar too. Go with what you're comfortable with. Besides, don't forget that the apples have its natural sweetness too.



Bake this for your mum for Mother's Day today if you still haven't got a clue on what to cook/bake for her! :)

Oh, and to all the mothers, and mothers-to-be in the near or distant future, plus my own mum - Happy Mother's Day!

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Apple Crumble

700g (1 ½ lb) peeled and chopped cooking apples
2 teaspoons lemon juice
50g (2oz) sugar
50g (2oz) plain flour
Grated zest of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

For the crumble:
3 tablespoons soft brown sugar
50 g (2oz) rolled oats50g (2 oz) wholemeal flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
15 g ( ½ oz) margarine


Preheat the oven to gass mark 7/220 degree celcius (425 fahrenheit).
Toss the chopped cooking apples in a bowl with the lemon juice.
In another bowl, combine the sugar, plain flour, lemon zest and spices. Sprinkle the mixture over the apples then put the apples in a 23cm (9 inch) pie dish
To make the crumble mixture, mix together the soft brown sugar and the rolled oats, add the wholemeal flour and cinnamon, then rub in the margarine
Spoon the crumble over the apple mixture and bake in the oven for 40 minutes.