Weekend Cooking: Apple and custard crumble

I mentioned last week that we had a lunch gathering to celebrate my son's 18th birthday and when I asked him what he wanted for dessert he very quickly answered apple crumble. Now, I have made apple crumble several times before but I hadn't saved the recipes that I had used to I went looking for a new recipe.

When I saw this recipe I thought "Of course!!" Why isn't this more common. I mean, most of the time when you have apple crumble you have custard too so why wouldn't you combine the two.

I found this recipe on Taste.com.au which used to be one of my go to websites for recipes, but I did take note of the comments and made a few changes to the recipes below. Firstly, I made double the quantity of custard. I also used brown sugar in the crumble topping instead of the caster sugar and I threw in a smattering (technical measurement) of oats as well to add to the texture.

And the result.....delicious! And my sister's mother-in-law asked for the recipe too which always makes me smile a bit because she is an awesome cook!!

Apple and custard crumble

1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 tablespoons vanilla custard powder
1/2 cup caster sugar
800g can pie apple
1 cup plain flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
100g butter, softened
Double thick cream, to serve

Preheat oven to 180°C. Combine milk and vanilla in a saucepan. Bring to the boil over medium heat.

Meanwhile, whisk 1 1/2 tablespoons custard powder, 2 tablespoons caster sugar and 2 tablespoons cold water in a heatproof bowl until smooth. Whisking constantly, pour in hot milk mixture in a thin stream. Return mixture to saucepan.

Cook, whisking constantly, over medium heat until custard comes to the boil. Reduce heat to low. Stir for 3 minutes or until reduced slightly (this cooks out the raw custard powder flavour).

Spoon apple into six 1-cup capacity dishes or one 6-cup capacity baking dish. Pour over warm custard.

Combine flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, remaining custard powder and sugar in a bowl. Stir to combine. Add butter.Using your fingertips, rub into dry ingredients until mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Scatter crumble over custard. Place on a baking tray bake for 30 minutes or until golden. Serve warm with cream.

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