Red Valentine Apple, Apricot & Amaretto Crumble
My mum recently gave me some apples from a tree in her garden. You can see the tree here, behind my sister and my niece in the summer just as it was starting to fruit...
It's quite a special tree for us, as my Grandad bought it for my Nanny as a Valentine's present a few years ago - the apples are called Red Valentine thanks to the heart shaped fruit. Sadly she never saw any of the apples come into fruition as she died that Autumn, with my Grandad following late last year.
Once you cut them open you can see it more clearly, with the interior containing another little blushing heart shape:
They're a bit sweeter than most apples, and have a kind of almost berry taste to them, so I decided I wanted to make a crumble. Desserts happen about once a year in our house due to my complete inability to bake, so this was kind of a big deal. Even I can manage a crumble though.
I chopped them up (skins on) into smallish cubes, then softened them in a pan with a squeeze of agave syrup and some water. As they cooked down I realised I might not have enough filling for my crumble, so quickly chopped up some dried apricots and popped them in too. I added a shot of Amaretto to the mix to liven things up a bit too.
Next, I made my crumble by rubbing together butter, sugar and flour in random amounts. This is why I like a crumble as you are far likelier to succeed without measuring things than you are with bloody cakes. Remembering the almondy Amaretto flavour in the filling, I sprinkled in some ground almonds to the crumble mix too.
I'd happily eat them like that to be honest. Bake in the oven for around 15 minutes. I burnt mine as they were in for more like 25 as I got distracted watching Narcos on Netflix.
Serve with something cold like ice cream or clotted cream. Not custard, too wet and claggy.
Yum. Still never as good as anything my Grandad cooked though.