Christmas Crumble with Apples and Cranberries

Start the festive season with this boozy Christmas crumble with apples and cranberries. It's a perfect no-fuss, no-stress quick and easy merry dessert.

Bookmarks

• ❤️ Why I Like This Dessert
• 🍰 What is This Christmas Apple Crumble Like?
• 📃 Recipe Ingredient Overview and Easy Substitutions
• ⌛ Hands-on Time and Equipment
• 📷 How to Make Christmas Crumble in Pictures
• 💡 How to Alter the Recipe
• 🍽️ How to Serve my Christmas Apple Crumble
• ❄️ How to Store and Reheat
• Christmas Apple Crumble with Cranberries

❤️ Why I Like This Dessert

• simple to make
• takes around an hour from start to finish
• easily altered to be vegan and gluten-free
• great for kids to help with the preparation (maybe you want to skip the booze if the kiddies will eat it too)

🍰 What is This Christmas Apple Crumble Like?

Christmas is all about indulgent foods, naughty desserts and good drinks. This apple and cranberry crumble ticks all three of those boxes.

Sweet apples and tart cranberries make a perfectly balanced filling. The rum and cinnamon give this dessert a bit more festive kick. There is just enough tartness from cranberries before the sweetness and booze take over.

The textures are spot on, with the crunchy topping complimenting the soft fruit filling.

📃 Recipe Ingredient Overview and Easy Substitutions

Here are the recipe ingredients and the exact products I've used to make this crumble:

For the Filling

• medium-sized gala apples
• fresh cranberries
• caster sugar; Silver Spoon Caster Sugar
• ground cinnamon; Schwartz Ground Cinnamon
• spiced rum; Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum

For the Crumble Topping

• plain flour; Matthews Flour Organic Plain Fine Flour
• caster sugar; Silver Spoon Caster Sugar
• butter; Lurpak Unsalted Block Butter
• fine porridge oats; Tesco Scottish Oats Porridge
• flaked almonds; Tesco Flaked Almonds

Fruit

Cranberries
Christmas is an excellent time to buy fresh cranberries in the supermarkets. They are available from November to December in the UK.

Apples

Apples play an essential part as they add volume to the filling and balance the sharp taste of cranberries by adding more natural sweetness.

My favourite apples for this crumble are Gala apples. I like that they get a bit mushy but, at the same time, retain some texture.

For any crumble, I prefer an apple variety that gets soft (Empire, Bramley) rather than firm apples (Granny Smith, Pink Lady).

Here is a helpful article about Choosing the Right Apples for Apple Pies and Other Recipes from Almanac.com.

Spiced Rum

I highly recommend spiced rum with warm flavours like vanilla, nutmeg, ginger and cloves.

Czech rum is another excellent option, as it's flavoured with caramel and vanilla essence.

Golden rum or brandy with a small amount of vanilla extract makes a suitable substitution.

Oats

Oats and almonds add texture and crunch.

I like fine ground oats, but you can use larger rolled oats. They will be more noticeable in the crumble topping.

⌛ Hands-on Time and Equipment

It takes around an hour to make the recipe. The method consists of the following steps:

• preparing the fruit filling (15 minutes)
• making the crumble topping (10 - 15 minutes)
• baking (35 - 40 minutes)

You will need the following:

• oven-proof dish (approx 30 x 21 cm) - glass, ceramic or metal 
• mixing bowl

📷 How to Make Christmas Crumble in Pictures

• Preheat the oven to 200C/180C fan. Coat the bottom of the baking dish with butter.

• Place the apples and cranberries into the baking dish, and toss the caster sugar and cinnamon over the fruit. Pour in the rum. 

• For the topping, mix flour and sugar in a large mixing bowl. 

• Rub the cubed butter and the dry ingredients with your fingers until the mix consists of lumps and clumps of various sizes. 

• Stir the oats and almonds into the crumbly mixture. 

• Scatter the crumble topping over the fruit, covering the whole surface. 

• Bake at 200C/ 180C fan for 35 - 40 minutes. 

Let the crumble cool down for 15 - 20 minutes before serving. 

💡 How to Alter the Recipe

One of my favourite things about this recipe is how versatile it is. You can replace cranberries for different fruits and almonds for any other nuts or coconut.

Moreover, this recipe can also be altered to be vegan or gluten-free.

Vegan

To adjust this crumble, you need to replace butter with plant-based margarine.

I recommend Vitalite dairy-free spread. For the best result, replace 110g of butter in the recipe with 90g of Vitalite margarine.

Gluten-free

To make this recipe gluten-free, replace the plain flour with a gluten-free option and consider not using oats.

I like Doves farm gluten-free bread flour.

🍽️ How to Serve my Christmas Apple Crumble

Serve the dessert in bowls with a spoon, especially if you accompany it with custard, cream (whipped or poured) or ice cream.

Crumble always look a bit rustic. Imagine warm juicy fruit filling with clumps of golden crunchy crumble randomly scattered over the top and melting whipped cream or ice cream on the side. Delicious.

❄️ How to Store and Reheat

Store leftovers in the fridge in an airtight container for 3 - 4 days, or freeze them.

Crumble is safe to freeze for up to 3 months. It will keep longer in the freezer; however, the taste might be affected.

It's best to reheat the crumble in the oven, but you can quickly warm it up in the microwave if you don't mind a soggy topping.