How to Make the Easiest Apple Crumble with Julia Collin Davison

[Music] i grew up in upstate western new york right on the erie canal and everybody had an apple tree in their yard which means i've eaten my fair share of apple crumble and i have strong opinions on the topic so i'm excited to share with you my favorite version which starts with a ton of apples this is four pounds of golden delicious apples and to me good apple crumble has a thick layer of apples and just a hint of topping now golden delicious apples are perfect for crumble because they're available everywhere they have a really nice balanced sweet tart flavor and they hold their shape during baking if you can find honeycrisp those are my favorites but they're seasonal and probably a little regional grey burns are also another good substitute but whatever you do don't use granny smith they will break down to mush all right so i'm just gonna peel and core them now whenever i peel an apple it's silly but i try to get the peel off in one long piece keep myself entertained while i peel apples that's not bad let's see if i can do better and i still sing the alphabet whenever i twist off the stem because when you grow up in apple country whatever letter you land on and the stem releases from the apple that is supposed to be the first initial of who your true love will be so that's all the apples now we're simply going to cut around to the core and cut them up into chunks that measure about three quarters of an inch and you could use an apple corer here but i don't like them very much i think they're hard to use and they miss some of the core cutting around the core is just much faster once you cut it around the core you're just going to break the pieces down into chunks again that measure about three quarters of an inch and that is a lot of apples which to me is really important for a good crumble we're just gonna flavor it with a few things this is two tablespoons of fresh lemon juice a little bit of sugar not a lot i don't like really sweet crumbles i just want to taste the apples so we're only going to add two tablespoons of sugar half a teaspoon of table salt last but not least three quarters of a teaspoon of cinnamon right you want to stir this all up already smells good next we're going to put these apples right in the baking pan and here i have an eight by eight inch metal pan i know it's a small look of hand and it's a lot of apples but we're gonna pack them in there they look like they're overflowing the edges of the pan you're probably thinking where are you gonna put that crumb topping well i'm going to cover this with foil i'm going to park cook the apples so it's going to reduce their volume until they fall just below the lip of the pan giving us room for the topping and we're going to put this on a rimmed baking sheet just in case some of those juices flow over the edges this is going into a 400 degree oven for about 30 minutes until those apples fall just below the lip of the pan [Music] those apples have just a few more minutes in the oven so it's the perfect time to make the topping now the topping like i said before i don't like a lot of it and i care about the texture i like it crunchy and a little bit sweet but not overly sweet so we're going to start with just a cup of flour this is all-purpose flour and of course you could measure it using a cup measure i like to weigh the flour it just is easier and it's more consistent for me a cup of all-purpose flour should weigh 5 ounces to this we're going to add some brown sugar half a cup of packed brown sugar i keep my brown sugar in a zipper lock bag oh if you have one of these it's a little brown sugar keeper but it's a terracotta a piece of terracotta that you soak in water and it helps your brown sugar stay nice and moist for a long time this is light brown sugar i pack it into the cup and i use the bag to help me really press it into the cup and then i rub the top to make sure it's flat that's it half a cup of brown sugar now half a cup of sliced almonds i'm going to chop them pretty fine you can use a food processor for this if you want into the bowl with the flour all right just a few more ingredients two teaspoons of vanilla extract half a teaspoon of table salt we're going to add two teaspoons of water now i know it doesn't sound like a lot of water but it makes a big difference in the topping because it makes it have an extra crisp texture last but not least we're going to add butter this is six tablespoons of unsalted butter that i melted you could melt in the microwave if you want i like to melt it on the stove i don't know why i tend to splatter it all over the microwave now we're just gonna mix this together until it's evenly combined and you'll see it almost looks like a cookie dough lots of little crumbles perfect everything's evenly combined let's check those apples you can see they've really sunk below the lip of the pan which is perfect now i'm just going to press on them slightly really to compact them and make room for that topping now we're just going to sprinkle the topping right over the apples i'm going to break up any clumps that are bigger than a marble all right so i'm just evening out the topping on here making sure it gets into the corners that looks good back into the oven this goes but this time i'm going to put it on the upper rack that way the heat is concentrated on the topping so it can get good and golden it'll take about 30 minutes for the topping to cook through and for the juices of the apples to bubble up around the sides that crumble's been in the oven for about 30 minutes and i can smell that it's done look at that beauty thank goodness i put it on the tray right a little bit of those juices overflowed the sides you can see that the topping is nicely even golden and the juices have bubbled up around the edges which is perfect now these apples really need to cool for at least 45 minutes before you dig in not only so you won't burn your mouth but so the apples actually set up and it's scoopable so hard as it may be the key to a really good apple crumble is patience here's why as the apples heat through during baking their cells undergo some changes apple cells contain water and are held together by pectin molecules as the heat from the oven penetrates the apples it forces the water through the cell walls the pectin then dissolves into the water allowing the cells to separate and forms a delicate mesh the key then is to understand how this loose mesh of pectin changes as the crumble cools if we scoop into the crumble when it's fresh out of the oven all that water will flow out because the pectin mesh is loose and mobile while it's hot as the crumble cools however this pectin mesh changes it becomes tighter and less mobile and ultimately sets the water into a firm gel and that's why when we scoop into the cooled crumble the filling isn't watery but rather has a thickened texture that stays put so don't let that 45 minute cooling time get the better of you just let it rest the crumble has been resting for 45 minutes so now we can dig in that's a good sound right through that crisp topping lots of apples and of course i'm gonna serve this with a little vanilla ice cream just a little this is an upstate new york portion right here you can see my portion of apples to the portion of topping is the right ratio for me i like nicely baked apples with just a little bit of that crisp topping the topping has a really rich flavor but it's not greasy and you can see thanks to that 45 minute resting time it's not really soupy in the bottom that apple filling has really set up yep that is a monroe county crumble all right if you want to make the ultimate apple crumble gotta remember three things first use a lot of apples a whopping four pounds second you want to make sure you cook those apples in the pan before you add the topping last but not least have a little patience during the cooling time so the filling can set up from america's test kitchen at home the last word on apple crumble thanks for watching america's test kitchen what'd you think well leave a comment and let us know which recipes you're excited to make or you can just say hello you can find links to today's recipes and reviews in the video description and don't forget to subscribe to our channel see you later i'll see you later

Channel: America's Test Kitchen

Views: 1,339,427

Keywords: americas test kitchen, cooks country, cooks illustrated, apple crumble, baking videos, apple recipes, apple crumble recipe, how to make apple crumble

Id: bNCPY6XlsN0

Length: 8min 49sec (529 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 16 2021