Oh, Crumbs 2.0
A tonne of yum this week with my Spiced Apple, Caramel & Custard Crumble Bars, Last of the Summer Berry Crumble & Almond Crème Anglaise, Sticky Choccy Pudding & German Apfelkuchen.
Hey Friends!
I hope you are all well this week? On top of moving house (to a temporary spot before we move into our new home come mid-October fingers, eyes, toes and nose crossed), I have been to Belfast to film a tv show (Mastermind, in fact – which is a whole story in itself), done a photoshoot for a new product we are launching over at All Things Butter, painted our old flat ready for the new owners to take the keys and make our first home their new home AND made some time to make some INCREDIBLY delicious bakes for you all to enjoy this week.
I am going to keep this newsy as short as I possibly can – those of you who have been here for a while know this girl LOVES to yap about everything and nothing so will do my best to keep the updates brief so we can get to the good stuff asap.
Would be silly of me to not mention Bake Off considering that is now back on our screens. It has been a whole 6 years since I was on the show – SIX WHOLE YEARS – which blows my tiny pea brain. Where has time gone? What have I done since then? How have I still not uncovered the cure to my incessant grey hair epidemic which has been loud and proud since my early twenties? How, folks?? HOW??? Anyway, I appear to have digressed (shock). I was trying to say that I actually haven’t gotten round to watching the first episode of the new series yet as I have been eyeballs deep in moving boxes and stress SO NO SPOILERS PLEASE.
If anyone of you is also currently navigating the fun house trifecta of moving, buying, selling, you have my deepest, heartiest condolences. I feel your pain bro. We have very luckily moved into James parents lovely house for the next few weeks as we await all the paperwork shenanigans to be completed so you’ll be seeing a new background in my new vids over the coming weeks. Please do bear with me as I find my footing – if things are a little late (newsy and insta content). I am definitely someone who doesn’t necessarily enjoy juggling a mountain load of things as it upsets this stereotypical Libra to no end so hoping to find my rhythm and balance soon and get back to regular programming as quickly as possible.
Cause ya know why??? It’s near CHRISTMAS BABY. And we bloody love that sh*t over here. I JUST KNOW Micheal Buble is getting ready to defrost for his annual outing and I just can’t wait. Anyway, I’ve gone and done what I said I wouldn’t do and have yapped a load of rubbish about literally nothing. She’s reliable, at least?
Because I said I was gonna keep it short and sweet because of my ever looming deadline of moving out the house is literally within touching distance, let’s get straight into the menu this week:
First up, we have the latest Around the World bake, with a German Apfelkuchen – otherwise known as a German Apple Cake. A delightfully easy cake to make and a great way of using up the abundance of apples that you have lurking in the deep depths of your fridge.
Onto one of my fave things I have made of late with my Sticky Choccy Pudding. I gave a sneak peak of this a few weeks back on Instagram and my DM’s were FLOODED with recipe requests, and I don’t blame you. It’s sticky, chocolatey, fudgy and smushy in all the right places. Fun fact: this is so good, my sister ate half of the tray A WEEK after it had been made. Sketchy moves but she regrets nothing.
Onto the crumble goodness this week with my Spiced Apple, Caramel & Custard Crumble Bars. These are a riff off a recipe from my book One Bake Two Ways which uses berries but now we are entering all things spiced and nice season, we are switching out the fruit for apples bathed in a Cinnamon Caramel, sitting on a bed of Cardamom shortbread and vanilla Custard and topped with a ginger Crumble. We got the 5 C’s so you KNOW this is going to taste bomb dot com.
Finishing up the lot this week with my Last of the Summer Plum & Berry Crumble with Almond Crème Anglaise. A beautifully easy dessert to make for anyone still in denial that we are officially in Autumn but a great way of also using up frozen fruit and transforming it into something comforting, warming and cosy. We are topping this with a deliciously sweet brown butter crumble and finishing the lot by drowning it in an almond custard. Sublime.
Alrighty then, we are off to a super strong start with my latest Around the World cake. The only thing that has been getting me through the house move mania is the occasional promise of a cake and I am pleased to report, this one did not let me down. Number 31 on the world's most secretive list is a German Apfelkuchen, otherwise known as a German Apple Cake. It's buttery, it's moist and hits that perfect spot of being sweet but not too sweet. As someone who would definitely count apples as one of their top 5 worst fruit to eat solo, I am a HUGE FAN.
I know I have spoken about my dislike for apples a fair amount over here. It’s a safe space. We can express ourselves freely and thank you for allowing me to indulge in my apple slander every so often. In the world of mangoes, passionfruit, coconut, strawberries and cherries, how is anyone really saying ‘oooh, I could really do with an apple right now’. Like? Like?????? Treat yourselves better than a solo apple folks, I promise you, you deserve better than that. A solo apple is up there with dragonfruit as the most criminal of fruit BUT if the apple comes with one of the 5 C’s – I am vaguely interested. Multiple C’s – ya girl is all in. Invested. Committed. Obsessed.
The C’s being:
Cinnamon
Crumble
Cardamom (DUHHHHHH)
Custard
Caramel
This classic cake had one of the C’s (cinnamon) but I truly believe that adding a few more could take this up a whole notch. Luckily for you guys, I have done just that and combined ALL FIVE C’S into one bake a little later on and wow.
Just wow.
Anyhoo - every man and their dog on google claims to have an authentic recipe for this cake and say their Oma's recipe is the best. I don't know which is what but I do know that the recipe I opted to go with did not disappoint. This is a super easy bake to make and I tried it twice – once with diced apples and once with grated. Either option is great but the grated dispersed that apply flavour throughout the bake, meaning each mouthful was a taste of autumnal perfection. Think warming, think cosy, think hug on a plate.
Recipe Makes: 1 x 23 cm / 9 inch cake tin
Recipe Serves: 8 generous slices
Y O U – W I L L – N E E D -
800 g Apples (I opted for Granny Smith BUT any seasonal apple will be good)
1 Lemon, juice only
200 g Brown Butter, melted & reset and then left at room temp (you can sub for regular unsalted)
200 g Caster Sugar
45 ml Whole Milk
3 Large Eggs
250 g Plain Flour, sifted
3 tsp Baking Powder, sifted
1.5 tsp Ground Cinnamon
Pinch of Salt
1 tsp Vanilla Bean Paste
10 g Demerara Sugar
Stem Ginger Syrup or Apricot Jam, to glaze
Golden Icing Sugar, to dust
M E T H O D –
Preheat the oven to 150C Fan/170C/350F/Gas Mark 3 and grease and line a 23 cm/9 inch springform/removable base cake tin.
Peel, core and grate 750 g of apple. Add to a bowl full of water and squeeze in the lemon juice to avoid browning. Slice the remaining apple to use as decoration, add to water and add a squeeze of juice again.
Into a mixer bowl, add the butter, sugar and milk. Cream together until light and fluffy. This will take about 5 minutes.
Add the eggs to the bowl, mixing well between each addition.
Into a separate bowl, add the plain flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Use a balloon whisk to combine – mixing this before they go to the main party just allows everything to have met before ya know. Plus it helps to avoid overmixing – which is the most important bit.
Drain the grated apple, removing any surplus liquid.
Add the dry ingredients to the butter bowl and mix until just combined.
When there are little to no flour streaks remaining, add the grated apple and vanilla bean paste. Mix well.
Transfer the batter to your lined tin. Use the reserved sliced apple to decorate the top.
Sprinkle over the demerara sugar and pop into the oven and bake for 55 to 60 minutes.
Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes. Whilst the cake is still hot, glaze the top with the stem ginger syrup or apricot jam.
Remove from the tin and leave to completely cool. Once cool, dust the top liberally with icing sugar.
Slice and serve with whipped cream (el classico as they do in Germany) or custard (as they do in casa rubes).
Up next is a total FILTHBAG of a bake. Like a scrumptious bundle of yum that you just want to dive face first into and never return. This folks, is my Sticky Choccy Pudding.
This deliciously sweet and outrageously easy pudding will soon be one of your faves to have on rotation. It’s officially Autumn which means it’s layer season baby! And I don’t just mean clothes, I mean bakes. I want cakes smothered in a saucy sauce. I want bread slathered in (cinnamon bun) butter and topped with a biscuit crumb. I want chocolate on chocolate on chocolate. This bake is a whole load of all that combined into one.
This is basically sticky toffee pudding’s cooler sibling – you have all that fudgey toffee yum, all finished with lashings of a chocolate sauce. This is finished perfectly topped with a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream and a pinch of sea salt or grab a one-way ticket to Cosy Central by drowning it in piping hot, freshly made vanilla bean custard (or the sort you get in a tin – we know I am not fussy on my custard). It’s by far, one of the easiest yums around, for this time of year.
I kid you not when I say my sister ate half of the entire tray A WEEK AFTER it had been made. Was this a wise move? Idk but shes still alive and kicking and says she has zero regrets. So if it tasted that good a week after it had been made, can you imagine how dreamy it is freshly baked? I had so many people ask me how on earth there was leftovers of this bake and honestly speaking, I judge myself for letting it live in the fridge for so long. James is gluten free (major whomp whomp) and doesn’t particularly like cakes (I know, I question my life choices daily) and on top of my daily bakes, there is only so much cake I can consume solo.
This was one of those bakes I didn’t want to part with so quickly because I knew once it was gone, it was gone and I just liked to indulge in a good forkful of it every time I opened the fridge door – until my sister arrived and demolished the lot like the trooper she is. IF there happens to be any leftovers of this once it has baked, heat up the dish/each slice in the microwave for a quick 30-60 second blast to bring this baby back to smushy goodness.
If you have a copy of my book One Bake Two Ways, you might have seen a similar looking bake in there: my Self Saucing Choccy Pudding. Both delicious, both worthy of your time – the latter I would say is just a somewhat filthier version, somehow.
I made the below to celebrate All Things Butter Cinnamon Bun being available in Sainsbury’s across the UK, which is HUGE for a new business specializing in British twice churned butter that has only been operating for just a little over 10 months. I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to be a part of the team, and I am SO excited to tell you all about the new product we have been working on which will be launching in October.
If you thought Cinnamon Bun flavour was good, the next is going to make your jaw DROP. The make up of CB Butter isn’t just as simple as adding a load of cinnamon and mixing with butter but I obvi also can’t tell you the exact recipe breakdown cause business duh BUT that being said the much much MUCH simpler version and one that will work well here is substituting the CB butter for equal parts of Unsalted Butter + ½ tsp Cinnamon Powder + ½ tsp Vanilla Bean Paste AND DON’T SKIP THE PINCH OF SALT IN THE SAUCE. Mega important. Now, let’s get to it.
Recipe Makes: 25 x 33 cm / 10 inch x 13 inch deep baking tray
Recipe Serves: 12 Slices (or 2 portions, if one of them is for my sister)
Y O U – W I L L – N E E D -
Sponge
175 g Medjool Dates
260 ml Whole Milk
3 Large Eggs
45 g All Things Butter Unsalted Butter, melted
1.5 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar
300 g Plain Flour, sifted
50 g Cocoa Powder
130 g Dark Muscovado Sugar
3 tsp Baking Powder, sifted
1.5 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda, sifted (plus ½ tbsp for dates)
Pinch of Salt
Sauce
220 ml Double/Heavy Cream
220 ml Whole Milk
125 g All Things Butter Cinnamon Bun
90 g All Things Butter Unsalted Butter
Pinch of Salt
150 g Light Brown Sugar
180 g Dark Chocolate
M E T H O D –
First, add your dates to a bowl of boiling water (enough to cover) and add ½ tbsp of bicarb. Give it a mix and leave to soak for 15 to 20 minutes, until the dates are super soft.
Once soaked, preheat your oven to 150C Fan/170 C/335 F/Gas Mark 3 and liberally grease the bottom and sides of a 10 inch x 13 inch / 25 x 33 cm deep baking tray with butter.
Drain the dates and leave till they are cool to touch. Remove the stone and peel off the skin. Place the dates and milk into a blender and blitz until smooth. You don’t want this puree to be chunky or bitty, so persevere until it is silky smooth.
Into a bowl, add all the wet ingredients for the sponge: milky date puree, eggs, melted butter and apple cider vinegar. Give it a good stir with a balloon whisk and mix until smooth. Leave to one side.
Into a larger bowl add all the dry ingredients for the sponge: flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, bicarb and salt. Use a whisk to thoroughly mix.
Pour the wet ingredients into the larger bowl and thoroughly mix using a balloon whisk. Once you are left with little to no visible flour streaks, use a rubber spatula to wipe down the edges and bottom of the bowl to ensure there are no flour pockets.
Transfer the batter to your greased dish and use the back of a spoon to level out the batter. Pop the tray into the oven and bake for 25 minutes.
Whilst the sponge is baking in the oven, make the sauce by adding all the ingredients, bar chocolate, to a pan and placing over a medium heat.
Allow the butter to gently melt, stirring little and often for the sauce to get saucy. Once the sugar has dissolved and the cinnamon butter has completely melted, add the chocolate.
Give it a good mix until melted. Allow the sauce to cook for a further 5 minutes to reduce slightly and thicken.
Once the sponge is baked (give the top a press and if it bounces back, you’re all good), remove from the oven.
Use a skewer to poke holes (like A LOT of holes, don’t be shy, the more holey, the more the sponge will soak up the sauce) into the sponge before carefully pouring over the hot sauce over the top. Don’t worry about the liquid pooling, let time do it’s thing. Cover the top of the tin with clingfilm and allow the pudding to sit for at least 30 minutes to soak up most of the liquid.
You can serve now whilst it is saucy, or serve when the sauce has set. Dust the top with cocoa powder.
When ready to serve, portion up the sponge into 12 generous servings and use a fish slice or spoon to scoop out. Transfer to a serving plate, lightly sprinkle over some sea salt and top with some vanilla ice-cream or custard to finish.
Moving onto our next two crumble bakes to finish off the menu. First up, we have one of the most satisfyingly delicious bakes I have made in a while. I know I pretty much say that about every bake I make and share with you guys in the newsy but GUYS WE COMBINED THE 5 C’S FOR THE ULTIMATE AUTUMNAL PUD!!!!!!
Excuse the use of capital letters and extortionate amount of exclamation marks but when I break this recipe down to you, any autumnal/cosy/apple/spiced lovers will understand. Let me paint the picture. Let me set the scene. Let me take you back to where it all began.
So there I was, trying the german Apfelkuchen for the first time. An apple cycnic. An apple slanderist (not a word but let’s roll with it). An apple hater (probs a bit far but I needed to round this sentence up). I ate the cake, enjoyed the cake, was surprised by said cake but still…despite the cake having an ample amount of cinnamon in it (mostly because I upped the quants from the original version), it was still lacking a little something something. SO. I did what any sane person would do, and went and grabbed a custard pot from my emergency custard stash.
I first slopped it on a slice (custard pot custard does not pour iykyk) and enjoyed it. I then dunked a slice straight into the slop and loved it. Despite that momentary feeling of elation, I knew something was missing. I KNEW it needed a crumble/streusel top. I KNEW it needed an appearance from my fave spice of them all, cardamom. I KNEW it needed caramel. I KNEW it was time for the 5 c’s to reassemble like the true superheroes they are. It was time for the gang to get back together again.
So whilst throwing the 5 c’s together in principle sounded like a good idea. Making sure the execution was nailed was another thing. Luckily for me (and you), I am a genius so knew I had a great base recipe to convert into autumnal magnificence. We’ve used a family fave recipe from One Bake, my Any Berry Crumble Bar recipe, as the base and wow. What a truly life changing decision. The end result is SO delicious. It’s everything I want from an apple based dessert and more. It’s essentially what I think Autumn would taste like in one hand sized slice.
This my friends, is my Spiced Apple, Caramel & Custard Crumble Bars.
This bake is made up of a layer of cardamom spiced shortbread, topped with a vanilla bean spiked custard (set to the point it holds it’s sh*t together but not so set that it is like jelly), a layer of cinnamonny appley caramelly goodness and finished with a ginger crumble, baked till golden brown perfection, left to set, sliced and DEVOURED.
Whether you serve this up hot or cold, sliced or scooped. You’re gonna love it, and me. Ya welcs.
Recipe Makes: 20 by 30 cm / 8 by 12 inch deep baking tin
Recipe Serves: 12 if you slice into bars
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