Apple Crum­ble

(enough for one child for at least six breakfasts)

150 grams/2/3 cup plain flour
60 grams/1/4 cup gran­u­lat­ed white sugar
80 grams/1/3 cup cold butter
4 Granny Smith apples, peeled and cut in bite-size pieces
sprin­kle fresh-ground nutmeg
sprin­kle fresh-ground cin­na­mon (or powdered)

This is a love­ly, light crum­ble, by Simon Hop­kin­son, one of my favorite Eng­lish cook­ery writ­ers. My crum­bles used to have too much but­ter, which result­ed in a heavy top­ping. And my friend Livia gave me, for Christ­mas, a cin­na­mon grinder. I’m devot­ed to it now. The scent is so much fresh­er than ready-ground, and it’s fun to do. I’ve also turned my back on ready-ground nut­meg. The aro­ma of fresh-ground just runs cir­cles around the pow­dered stuff.

Place the flour and sug­ar in your food proces­sor and turn it on. Then, a lit­tle chunk at a time, drop the but­ter into the lit­tle hole at the top and clamp your hand over the hole: flour will tend to show­er out the top when the but­ter dis­turbs it, the first cou­ple of chunks. Use up all the but­ter and whizz until the mix­ture is nice and sandy.

Scat­ter the apples in a nice oven­proof dish, sort of 8x6, or even a pie plate would do, I sup­pose. Scat­ter the crum­ble top­ping over all and grate a sprin­kle of nut­meg, and of cin­na­mon, over the whole thing. Just a dusting.

Bake at 180C/350F for about 25 min­utes, till the top is gold­en. Don’t let it burn. Serve warm with ice cream for that sore throat.