Apple & Raisin Crumble

My boyfriend is a huge lover of apple crumbles and I've mastered how to make a good ol' crumble pretty quickly...out of pure determination if anything to be honest, he's quite the critique so I put my blood, sweat and tears into making the best possible version for him!! I couldn't think of anything worse than cooking something for someone and they end up not liking it or preferring a supermarket version!! No risk of that happening with my bad boy of a crumble!!

I wanted to add a little "je ne sais quoi" to my latest creation as I've made quite a few this year already, so Darren suggested I add raisins, so raisins it was, and boy did it taste good!

You can omit the raisins and use just the apples, it tastes pretty epic without them, if I do say so myself!

Ingredients:

• 300g plain flour
• 250g chilled, unsalted butter, cut into cubes
• 70g demerara sugar
• 70g caster sugar
• 6 cooking apples, peeled and cored and cut into chunks

Pre-heat the oven to 200C/390F/gas mark 6. Combine the flour, sugar and butter in a food processor and pulp briefly until the mixture resembles very coarse breadcrumbs with a few larger lumps.

Sprinkle with a little cold water and mix through with a fork. You want to create some larger lumps in this process. Put the crumble mix into a freezer bag and place in the freezer for around 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, put your apples into a deep saucepan with a little water and sprinkle with some demerara sugar and cook on a low heat until softened. Taste as you go along, adding more sugar if needed.

Once ready, I like mine to be half mush with the other half of the apples still being intact. Add the raisins (to taste) and stir through.

Grease a baking dish with butter then add the fruit to the dish and ensure it distributed evenly. Take the crumble mix out of the freezer and place on top of the fruit, ensuring it is level. Sprinkle some demerara sugar on top, but not too much, this will really help it crisp up and get a really nice golden colour.

Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes, until golden and bubbling, and serve slightly cooled...with custard or vanilla ice cream.

Let me know what you like in your crumbles....would love to try some new variations!