My very eager and equally cute kitchen hands, Sofia and Luka, helping to prepare Apple Crumble.  

School holidays have started complete with overcast sky, rain and six children keen to do “something exciting”. I should add at this point that I adopt an additional role during term break, that of entertainment director. My older three traipsed off to the Royal Easter Show with their dad and I gladly stayed home with our three littlest ones. I say gladly, because a trip to the show with a toddler in a pram on a rainy day, having contending with crowds, is about as appealing to me as a visit to the dentist. It’s something I avoid. Instead, I had a lovely day pottering about and baking with Sofia and Luka, whilst Maksim rearranged my kitchen drawers, stuck 3M sticky notes all over the walls and scattered dominoes over the floor. Harmless fun. 

Maksim stretched out on the kitchen floor, as we baked.  



My eight and five year olds set to work industriously dicing the juicy gala apples I peeled for them in preparation for a favourite dessert, Apple Crumble. I love the expression of concentration on their faces – determined to dice the apples evenly and avoid slicing their fingers. I’m sure sticking out the tongue helps keep Luka focused. As my second youngest son slid the last of his apples into the pot, he announced triumphantly, “I’ve finished Mum, and look, I still have all my fingers!” 

I have published this recipe before but this time I cooked the apples without adding sugar. They were so sweet and fragrant to begin with and browned beautifully in the pan prior to being covered with the soon-to-be crunchy crumble topping. Luka and Sofia almost inhaled their lunch of mini meatballs with tomato, vegetable and ginger sauce in a race to reach their bowl of apple crumble in record time. 

I made plenty of Apple Crumble for everyone to enjoy. Despite all those gozleme, kebabs, pizza and fairy floss that my older three children consumed at the Show today, they still had room for my Apple Crumble. 


My Reduced Sugar Apple Crumble to serve 10 – 12 people

Halve all of the ingredients if cooking for 5 – 6 people. 
Fragrant Apple Filling Ingredients

2 kg of your favourite in-season apples, washed, peeled and diced into bite sized pieces.
100 g unsalted butter
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla essence or the seeds from 1 scraped vanilla bean 

Melt the butter in a large saucepan and then add all of the ingredients. Sauté over a low heat for 15 minutes until the mixture is glossy and golden brown.

Scrape into a wide oven-proof dish measuring between 28cm and 32cm in diameter. I have used a ceramic Pillyvuit dish in the past which presents well. Today I tried my shallow Le Creuset cast iron pan which worked especially well, since I cooked the apples and then covered them with crumble in the same pan. Less washing up!

Top evenly with the following crumble topping.

Crunchy Crumble Topping Ingredients

200 g rolled oats
200 g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
250 g unsalted butter melted

Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl and mix until combined and the ingredients clump together. 

Spread evenly over the fragrant apple filling  and bake in a preheated conventional oven at 180 degrees for 25 minutes. Serve with double cream or custard… or both.