Strawberry Apple Crumble
DESSERTS,  BAKING,  CRUMBLES & CRISPS,  EGGLESS,  VEGETARIAN

Delicious Strawberry Apple Crumble … a very easy heart friendly dessert!

2011/04/06 / 48 Comments
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“In two decades I’ve lost a total of 789 pounds. I should be hanging from a charm bracelet.”
Erma Bombeck

Strawberry Apple Crumble

I made this 2 days ago after the dieting diva was pestering me for dessert, with a condition that it must be healthy and low fat… and delicious of course. She has a penchant for strawberries, yet as I lazily dithered she loudly wished there was a diet food delivery service! I didn’t tell her that like pizzas, diet food here too is also just a phone call away. My belief often … what you don’t know, can’t hurt you!

Strawberry Apple Crumble
Strawberry Apple Crumble

As I learnt fairly recently, the concept of gourmet diet food delivery is catching on in India now as well. It’s a novel concept for folks on the go and customises a diet for individual requirements with consultation with  nutritionist, keeping in mind individual dietary requirements, heart rates, lipid profiles and what not! It’s a concept that seems to work well here too as it breaks certain trends like fat and sugar laden meals which are traditionally prepared in Indian households where deep fried food and the lavish use of clarified butter is much the norm.  What you get is a nutritionally balanced meal from each of the five food groups etc with a mix of complex carbohydrates, vegetables, lean protein {vegetarian or non vegetarian}, using a heart friendly oil like olive oil … with the promise to deliver delicious meals!

Strawberry Apple Crumble

Making diet food is much my voluntary vocation at home these days, with the dieting teen refusing to eat otherwise. I dived into the fridge to put together a ‘healthy dessert’.  Apples stared back at me and a box of strawberries. I knew just the thing I’d make… a fruit crumble. I find crisps and crumbles one of the easiest desserts to bake. They are therapeutic, satisfying and look pretty with fruit juices oozing out invitingly. For this recipe, use firm tart apples for this as they pair tantalizingly with sweet strawberries … We’ve bid a hasty adieu to winter and with it pears, apples. Even more hastily, we’ve welcomed summer. Spring was sweet and short , marked in India by the festival of colour, Holi, which as you can see above the kids enjoyed to the last drop of colour! Need I say more? {Just for the record, they are back to looking normal again!}. With Spring came strawberries that flooded the market for a bit.

Holi - Indian summer

Think summer in India and think Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the mid day sun … lyrics from a song I heard when I was a kid. It’s from the musical revue “The Third Little Show” (1924), Noel Coward and is about all I recall from the song. It paints a graphic picture of the blistering heat that beats down during the Indian summer, with Englishmen wearing sola topees {pith helmets often worn by the British in the tropics} walking about at noon! The song is amusing to say the least. Here are a few lines from the song …

Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun
The Japanese don’t care to, the Chinese wouldn’t dare to
Hindus and Argentines sleep firmly from twelve till one
But Englishmen detest-a siesta …

Strawberry Apple Crumble

And as you hum the song, here’s a recipe for a heart friendly dessert with complex carbs, delicious fruit and low calories. Use fruit of the season, stone and pip fruit work great here, throw in a handful of chopped dry fruit, almonds, pistachios, walnuts etc, then throw in some tart cherries, craisins, raisins if you like, add some fresh herbs like thyme for a nice Spring feel …  and bake until the juices begin to enticingly ooze out. ENJOY!!

Strawberry Apple Crumble

Strawberry Apple Crumble

A heart friendly dessert with complex carbs, delicious fruit and low calories. Use fruit of the season, stone and pip fruit work great here, throw in a handful of chopped nuts then throw in some tart dried berries, add some fresh herbs! Enjoy
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 28 minutes
Course Appetiser, Breakfast, Dessert, Snack
Servings 4

Ingredients
  

  • 6 firm apples diced {tart,crisp ones}
  • 150 gm strawberries chopped {fresh or frozen}
  • Juice of 1 lime
  • 2 tbsp brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup walnuts chopped
  • 1/2 cup raisins
  • Fresh thyme

Topping

  • 2 heaped tbsp plain flour
  • 2 tbsp brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup butter; chilled
  • 1/2 cup rolled oats

Instructions
 

  • Toss the diced apples with the lime juice as soon as you chop them.
  • Mix in the strawberries, sugar, raisins and walnuts.
  • Put into 6-8 individual ramekins or a shallow pie dish (9” or 23cm or 1L), and press lightly into place.

To prepare crumble topping:

  • Mix plain flour and sugar with a spoon in a dry bowl.
  • Put in cold butter cut into pieces and work with finger tips to make a breadcrumbs like texture. Now toss in the oats lightly with a spoon.

Assemble:

  • Preheat the oven to 180C for 10 minutes. {You can do this just as you begin chopping the fruit}.
  • Put this crumble over the fruit mixture, pressing down gently to cover the top & seal the fruit in.
  • Bake till top light brown and stewed fruit juice begins to appear on edges {about 30 minutes

Notes

Use seasonal fruit. Crumbles and crisps are good destinations for overripe fruit too.

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deeba

ai?auid=12261&cs=4d7b97dac330d&cb=INSERT RANDOM NUMBER HERE

About me: I am a freelance food writer, recipe developer and photographer. Food is my passion - baking, cooking, developing recipes, making recipes healthier, using fresh seasonal produce and local products, keeping a check on my carbon footprint and being a responsible foodie! I enjoy food styling, food photography, recipe development and product reviews. I express this through my food photographs which I style and the recipes I blog. My strength lies in 'Doing Food From Scratch'; it must taste as good as it looks, and be healthy too. Baking in India, often my biggest challenge is the non-availability of baking ingredients, and this has now become a platform to get creative on. I enjoy cooking immensely as well.

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48 Comments

  • Sam

    2011/04/06 at 5:05 pm Reply

    Nice blog u got here 🙂 some of the recipes mention preheating at a temp. But I’m clueless about the time. Help?

  • Mandira Kalra Kalaan

    2011/04/06 at 5:16 pm Reply

    ok so I just put a apple crumble into the oven and then got on to my laptop to check my reader and email and I saw this….now I am wishing I had put strawberries in mine too 🙂

    M

  • Ramya

    2011/04/06 at 5:24 pm Reply

    What a quick and yummilicious dessert that too low fat….cant get any better than this!!!
    Njoyed reading ur post!! Great clicks as always!!

  • Divya Kudua

    2011/04/06 at 7:09 pm Reply

    Apple crumble is one of my favorite go-to desserts..perfect results every time with minimal effort.Pairing it with strawberries sounds like a great idea..but alas,end of strawberry season,so no luck there.Planning a Mango crumble as soon as the Mango season starts..can’t wait!!

  • CurryLeaf

    2011/04/06 at 7:33 pm Reply

    Great Dessert. I was also planning a Apple berry crumble. Your addition of thyme is interesting and a great twist to the normal recipe. Great diet dessert as well.

  • CurryLeaf

    2011/04/06 at 7:33 pm Reply

    Great Dessert. I was also planning a Apple berry crumble. Your addition of thyme is interesting and a great twist to the normal recipe. Perfect diet dessert as well.

  • shaz

    2011/04/06 at 7:45 pm Reply

    Oooh, the beautiful desssert caught my eye, but then my gaze went to your lovely lush pot of thyme and I have gardening envy! The kids looked like they had a great time during Holi. Did it take much to scrub them clean ? 🙂

  • sonia

    2011/04/06 at 8:11 pm Reply

    Perfect Apple crumble topped with the zest of sweet strawberries, simply awesome combo! Full of nutrition and fibre, hands down to this lovely dessert for all occasions!

  • gloria

    2011/04/06 at 8:29 pm Reply

    Dear Deeba How are you dear? I love crumbles always (and I made a crumble too)
    This strwberries and apple crumble look delicious, and like always I love your picturse!!!
    lots of huggs! gloria

  • Helene

    2011/04/06 at 9:11 pm Reply

    What a gorgeous dessert using strawberries. They are not in season in Canada yet. Can’t wait. Love your small dessert cups, they are so cute.

  • Sukaina

    2011/04/06 at 9:52 pm Reply

    That crumble looks so yummy. Looking at it, I owuld never guess it’s diet food. I love the grayish slate background you’re using. Pretty pictures as usual.

  • Sally Prosser

    2011/04/07 at 12:01 am Reply

    I love a good crumble – thanks for sharing so much here, the background, the pictures, the recipe, the rituals, the festivals. Did you paint on the drips? They look so perfect!

  • Delishhh

    2011/04/07 at 12:24 am Reply

    Oh i loved that you incorporated Holi into this post. i wish i could go to india during this time seems like a blast 🙂 So interesting about the diet food delivery service, i am sure they have that here too just don;t know about it. 🙂

  • Sharlene

    2011/04/07 at 2:12 am Reply

    Looks amazing and sounds amazing. I love crumbles and the like. They’re always filled with current produce and topped with crunchy goodness. Not to mention the a la mode variety I love so much!

  • Shelby

    2011/04/07 at 4:18 am Reply

    Oh Deeba, how I wish you were my mom! LOL. I’m probably much older than you though! Your crumble looks delicious! I hope your dieting diva thoroughly enjoyed it! I know I would!

  • Jamie

    2011/04/07 at 5:42 pm Reply

    Gorgeous crumbles! You are right in that there is something so artistically beautiful in a cooked crumble with the juices running down the sides. And now that it is getting warmer here I have actually been craving something like this! And I am seeing our first strawberries on the market. And listening to your stories of the Dieting Diva, I am somehow glad I had boys. But then again, they may not diet but they are boys. xoxox Missing you honey!

  • Johanna GGG

    2011/04/07 at 5:58 pm Reply

    Looks wonderful – nothing like fruit bubbling up through crumble – we are welcoming apples into season here so I am quite keen to cook with them – I am surprised that you don’t cook the apples first – my mum made lots of apple crumbles when I was young and always used stewed apples

  • Katrina

    2011/04/07 at 10:17 pm Reply

    Maybe I’ll do strawberry and apple. Our next week’s TWD is strawberry rhubarb crisp, but there is no rhubarb to be found yet this cold spring. Love all crisps.

  • Cookin' Canuck

    2011/04/08 at 3:04 am Reply

    Whenever the thermostat climbs in the middle of the summer and my kids are begging me to go out and play with them after lunch, I always say “Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun”. Lovely to see that quoted here. Your crumbles are gorgeous and your post is, as usual, thought-provoking.

  • Rituparna

    2011/04/08 at 6:27 pm Reply

    Every time I read a post here the first attraction is the quote. They are always so to the point and beautiful and thought provoking. It really gives me an intellectual high. Then comes the food. A crumble is probably my most loved dessert. Easy to make and the surprise that comes out from under that layer of cake always entices me. And who can miss those amazing photographs. They always make me feel hungry even on a full stomach. That diet diva doesn’t know what an amazing mom she has ……
    I wish I was your neighbour 🙂

  • BarbaraBakes

    2011/04/09 at 5:57 pm Reply

    I think the US needs to start gourmet diet food deliveries. I’ve never heard of it, but it’s a great idea. As is your delicious crumble, especially love the pictures with it oozing out of the cup!

  • Ruchira

    2011/04/11 at 6:50 pm Reply

    Delicious recipe Deeba! I tried using strawberry with seedless black grapes and my daughters literally licked the dish clean. I always enjoy visiting your blog.

  • Rajani@eatwritethink

    2011/04/12 at 7:07 am Reply

    love your fruit bakes deeba,,, and this one’s fab. love the bowls looks like they playing holi too. the images have a lovely rustic feel to it. hmm… now i wish i was in gurgaon.

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