Caramel Apple & Pear Crumble
College is beginning to catch up with me. I’m only two assignments into the semester & I already feel as if I’m drowning beneath the weight of it all. Not to be dramatic or anything, but I might not make it out alive. This final year could be the doom of me. Remember at the end of last year, during my exams no less, when I posted every single day? What happened to that person? I want her back. She seemed to be able to deal way more than I can. She was too damn easygoing for her own good, didn’t even feel stress. (Oh the joys of growing older.)
That was a depressing opening paragraph, I do apologise. Sometimes everything just piles up on top of me & I kind of die a little bit inside. Like when I found out that my huge assignment that I thought was due in over a week, was actually due in four days. Or when I had to write the whole thing the night before it was due. Along with preparing for a huge slide test I have in two days time. You know, the usual life of a college student. It was quite suckish. It made me want to go back to a few weeks ago, when I made these delicious (&, it has to be said, damn cute) Caramel Apple & Pear Crumbles.
Remember the Caramel Apple Cinnamon Rolls I made at the start of the month? Well, I may have mentioned in that post that I had an abundance of apples in the house that needed to be used. So I baked. & baked. & then baked some more. The apples, unfortunately, are no more, but they sure produced a lot of deliciously Autumny goodies while they were around. & due to my excellent planning skills, I’ve been able to blend the apple recipes, such as my Personal Apple Pie, in with other non-apple recipes, like the Banana & Nutella Granola. (I’m crafty like that.) That way, no one gets sick of apples, which is probably what happened with bananas during Banana Week.
The pictures aren’t that great, which is a shame, because these were some pretty good crumbles. They were the product of a spur of the moment late night baking expedition that I regularly had time for during summer (sigh, why do I have to go to college?), so there was none of the natural light that usually floods my pictures available. Similar to the Rhubarb, Pear & Apple Crumble I made back in June, these crumbles are a little different than your usual crumble. Rather than adding any sugars to the crumble, we figured it would be a good idea to stuff the crumbles with caramel. We were right.
& we’re not just talking a little dab of caramel, heck no. Do you follow the blog at all? Nope, these things are loaded with caramel. Deliciously sweet caramel in every single bite. It’s the best. A crumble like this is the kind of thing that makes me smile & momentarily forget about all of my mounting college work. There’s caramel, there’s juicy fruit, & a crunchy almondy crumble topping. Did I mention that I left big clumps in the topping? Think Apple & Raspberry Crumble Bars size clumps. Because having it any other way is just blasphemous. I mean, feel free to have your crumble whatever size you want it, but know that I’m judging you. Big time. Leave the clumps.
Serves 5
Ingredients
- 5 apples, peeled, cored & cut into cubes
- 3 ripe pears, peeled, cored & cubed
- 6-10 tablespoons of caramel
- 100g of flour
- 100g of butter
- 100g of porridge oats
- 20g of flaked almonds
Method
- Preheat oven to 180°C.
- First, the crumble insides. Cook the apples & pears in a saucepan over a high heat for 4-5 minutes, or until just soft. Stir in 4 tablespoons of the caramel.
- Place the fruit into single serving dishes & dot with some more caramel (we used a lot, but if you’d rather a less sweet crumble then don’t use it all), being sure to leave one tablespoon.
- Now, the crumble topping. Mix together the flour, the almonds & the oats, then blend the butter into the mix with your fingertips, rubbing until combined, but leaving some clumps for taste.
- Stir the remaining caramel into the crumble mixture & scatter over the fruit mix.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until golden, bubbling with caramel & crisp on top.
- Enjoy!