A Good Apple and a Family Favourite

In the world of fruit, an apple could mistakenly be classified as your ‘basic’. It’s the go-to in everybody’s fruit bowl, the staple in every kid’s lunchbox, and one of the many things you’ll see piled high at supermarkets year round. We think that just like tomatoes, a good apple is so damned delicious you can’t stop at one and a bad apple – well that speaks for itself. Floury, dry and waxy all at once. 

In Victoria, we unfortunately don’t have the range of locally grown fruit you can get further north, but what we do have is an incredible array of orchards, growing apples and pears to be eaten now – not in 6 months time.

In this week’s Grow / Source / Eat, you’ll be getting the goods from Langdale Orchards at Harcourt (approx. 130kms from Melbourne). The Lang family have been growing apples and pears on their orchard for a whopping 160 years – in fact James Lang was likely the first person to export fruit from Australia back to England in the 1870’s. Fair to say they know what they’re doing, and it shows in the fantastic fruit they grow. We can’t wait to see what you make. 

Nichole’s Apple Crumble

Serves an undetermined number (how much crumble can you eat?!)

Ingredients:

Crumble

• 1/2 cup plain flour
• 90 grams cold butter, chopped
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup shredded coconut
• 1/4 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

Filling

• 4 granny smith apples, peeled, cored, cut into chunks
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 bunch rhubarb, leaves removed, trimmed, washed, roughly chopped
• 1/3 cup caster sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Method: 

– Preheat oven to moderate, 180°C (160°C fan-forced). Lightly grease a medium ovenproof dish.
– In a medium saucepan, combine apple and water. Bring to boil on high. Reduce heat to medium. Simmer, covered, 4-5 minutes, until almost tender.
– Add rhubarb and sugar. Simmer, stirring, 2-3 minutes, or until rhubarb is just tender. Drain excess liquid. Spoon mixture into prepared dish.
– To make crumble: Sift flour into a medium bowl. Rub in butter using fingertips until mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Stir remaining crumble ingredients through. Sprinkle evenly over fruit.

– Bake 25-30 minutes, until golden and bubbly. Eat fresh out of the oven or save it for a rainy day.

Recipe adapted from the one and only Women’s Weekly.