3 pounds Ontario apples, like McIntosh, Honeycrisp or Cortland
juice from ½ a lemon
For the crumble topping:
1 cup rolled oats
½ cup oat flour or unbleached all-purpose flour
½ cup dark brown sugar
½ cup pecans, chopped
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
½ cup of butter, chilled and cut into chunks
For the caramel sauce:
4 tablespoons butter
¼ cup cornstarch
¾ cup dark brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon kosher salt
¾ cup apple cider
To serve:
vanilla ice cream
Takes ,
serves 8.
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°F with the rack in the middle position. Grease an 8 x 11-inch baking dish with butter.
Prepare apples: Peel then core apples. Cut into ¼-inch chunks and place into a medium-sized mixing bowl. Sprinkle with lemon juice and toss to coat.
Prepare crumble topping: Place oats, flour, brown sugar, pecans, cinnamon and salt in a bowl and stir together. Add chunks of butter. Using your fingers, rub mixture together until blended and crumbly.
Prepare caramel sauce: Melt butter in a small saucepan on medium-high heat. Add cornstarch and stir to combine. Add brown sugar, stirring until bubbly and melted. Sprinkle then stir in salt and cinnamon, followed by apple cider. Keep stirring while the sauce comes to temperature and thickens. Remove from heat. Set aside.
Assemble crumble: Pour caramel sauce over apples. Stir gently but thoroughly to fully coat. Transfer apple mixture to prepared baking dish. Sprinkle with crumble topping, spreading the topping out evenly across the surface.
Transfer to oven and bake for 40 minute or until apples are tender and caramel is bubbling. Remove from oven, leaving crumble to cool for 15 minutes before serving.
To serve: Transfer scoops of crumble to small bowls. Top each serving with a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream. Serve immediately.
Caramel Apple Crumble Recipe
Ingredients
3 pounds Ontario apples, like McIntosh, Honeycrisp or Cortland
juice from ½ a lemon
For the crumble topping:
1 cup rolled oats
½ cup oat flour or unbleached all-purpose flour
½ cup dark brown sugar
½ cup pecans, chopped
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
½ cup of butter, chilled and cut into chunks
For the caramel sauce:
4 tablespoons butter
¼ cup cornstarch
¾ cup dark brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon kosher salt
¾ cup apple cider
To serve:
vanilla ice cream
Directions
Preheat oven to 350°F with the rack in the middle position. Grease an 8 x 11-inch baking dish with butter.
Prepare apples: Peel then core apples. Cut into ¼-inch chunks and place into a medium-sized mixing bowl. Sprinkle with lemon juice and toss to coat.
Prepare crumble topping: Place oats, flour, brown sugar, pecans, cinnamon and salt in a bowl and stir together. Add chunks of butter. Using your fingers, rub mixture together until blended and crumbly.
Prepare caramel sauce: Melt butter in a small saucepan on medium-high heat. Add cornstarch and stir to combine. Add brown sugar, stirring until bubbly and melted. Sprinkle then stir in salt and cinnamon, followed by apple cider. Keep stirring while the sauce comes to temperature and thickens. Remove from heat. Set aside.
Assemble crumble: Pour caramel sauce over apples. Stir gently but thoroughly to fully coat. Transfer apple mixture to prepared baking dish. Sprinkle with crumble topping, spreading the topping out evenly across the surface.
Transfer to oven and bake for 40 minute or until apples are tender and caramel is bubbling. Remove from oven, leaving crumble to cool for 15 minutes before serving.
To serve: Transfer scoops of crumble to small bowls. Top each serving with a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream. Serve immediately.
Caramel Apple Crumble Recipe
5 / 5. 2
Ontario’s finest McIntosh and Honeycrisp apples tossed in a salted caramel sauce, topped with a rolled oat crumble…
This CARAMEL APPLE CRUMBLE RECIPE is the season’s hottest dessert idea!
Trust us, dear friends, this stellar CARAMEL APPLE CRUMBLE RECIPE is the dessert idea we’ve all been waiting for. Funny enough, it happened quite by accident. We set out to craft an apple crisp, then decided it needed caramel notes with a pinch of salt. Although cobblers came to mind, we pivoted to a crumble topping. Well, wouldn’t you know it, the result is a new favourite apple dessert idea. So, if you love the flavour of an apple crisp yet crave the buttery nuttiness of a crumble too, this dessert is for you. Fair warning: do NOT serve this dessert without vanilla ice cream!
If fall and cool-weather desserts are your thing, you’ve come to the right place. Apple aficionados will love my MOM’S APPLE PIE, complete with a CHEDDAR CHEESE CRUST. Who knew? Pumpkin spice fans can get their fix with our scrumptious SPICED PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE or our PUMPKIN SQUARES. For the undecided, just click HERE for the complete list of all our desserts. You’ll find something to your liking, guaranteed.
For now though, grab your peeler and some apples. Let’s run through how to make this CARAMEL APPLE CRUMBLE RECIPE. I’m going to list tips and pics sequentially so you can see just how simple the recipe is.
ONTARIO APPLES
Let’s hear it for ONTARIO APPLES, IMHO, some of the finest apples in the world. We crafted this recipe using two varieties: Ontario McIntosh and Ontario Honeycrisp. The McIntosh deliver a tart flavour, and since these are tender apples, their soft, white flesh cooks down a little bit as the crumble bakes. The Honeycrisps deliver a pleasing sweetness and a little bit of tartness, and their crispness lingers after the crumble bakes, giving it a bit of bite. Look for FOODLAND ONTARIO signs, labels or stickers when purchasing Ontario apples, remembering good things grow in Ontario.
One note on the quantity needed for this apple dessert. We say three pounds of apples in the ingredients listed down below, but add an extra 1 or 2 into the mix, remembering we need to peel and core the apples for the recipe. We weighed out an extra few ounces of apples before beginning the recipe to allow for this loss. An additional thing to mention here, feel free to experiment with different varieties to get the right apples for your taste preferences. Granny Smith apples, Cortland, Golden Delicious, Idared and Northern Spy will all work. Whichever you try, just jot down your winning combinations on a recipe card.
When preparing the peeled and cored apples, the goal is small bite-sized chunks. Start by cutting the apples into regular slices, then take it a step further and trim the slices into ¼-inch chunks. Wait until you take your first bite of this apple crumble recipe. It has texture but then delivers soft, buttery, almost creamy hits of apple. It’s quite amazing. Pro tip: after chopping up the apples, sprinkle with lemon juice and toss gently. This will prevent the apples from browning as you prepare the salted caramel sauce and the crumble topping. They’re up next.
APPLE CRUMBLE TOPPING
Let’s start with an apple recipe fun fact: apple crumble has a simple flour, sugar, and butter streusel topping, while an apple crisp topping includes oats and sometimes nuts. In testing this recipe, we instantly knew that we’d keep everyone happy by combining the two, so our topping includes unsalted butter, dark brown sugar, kosher salt and ground cinnamon, but also rolled oats, oat flour and chopped pecans.
Making this topping for this recipe is easy. Pour everything except the butter into a medium bowl and stir the dry ingredients to combine. Then add the butter, tossing in the dry mixture to coat. Then, with clean hands, rub the butter into the dry ingredients to create a crumbly mix without any clumps. This step could not be easier. If you have wee one hanging out with you, get them to do this step. They’ll love helping.
SALTED CARAMEL SAUCE
If you’ve made our recipe for APPLE PIE before, you may experience a bit of déjà vu with this next step; it’s the exact same salted butter sauce we used in that recipe. Guess what? It works perfectly in this recipe too. Ingredients needed to make it include butter, kosher salt, ground cinnamon, cornstarch, dark brown sugar and apple cider. If you can’t find apple cider, use apple juice.
Making this homemade caramel sauce is easy as well, but sorry, no kids for this step, please. This simple sauce recipe is an upgrade from just tossing the apples with sugar, butter and spice. It begins with us melting butter in a hot saucepan before adding cornstarch, the seasoning, and then brown sugar, which we melt until bubbling. Final step is to add apple cider and then wait for the magic. Something wonderful happens when the liquid gets hot and the cornstarch thickens. As soon as that happens, remove the pan from the heat. Now it’s time to combine the apples with the sauce before adding the topping.
BEST BAKING DISH FOR APPLE CRUMBLE
Feel free to make this baked apple dessert in a favourite oven-safe baking dish. Fancy, deep-dish crocks will work, as will circular quiche and tart dishes. Our favourite though, is the classic 8 x 11-inch glass casserole dish. We love the see-through glass vessel so you can watch the golden apples and melted butter of the caramel filling bubble away as it bakes. Make sure to grease the dish with butter or cooking spray before adding the apples.
COMPONENTS FOR SALTED CARAMEL APPLE CRUMBLE
Sheesh, this photo of the components needed to make this best apple crumble recipe is coming in late. Here’s what you need: apples, the juice from half a lemon, salted caramel sauce and then the crumble topping. Talk about an easy, straightforward recipe. This is it!
ASSEMBLING AN APPLE CRUMBLE
The first step is to pour the salted caramel sauce over the apples in a large bowl. Then gently toss the apples to distribute the sauce and to coat the chunks of apple thoroughly. Then, spill the apples into the greased baking dish, spreading them out in an even layer.
Next step is to sprinkle the crumble topping over the apples. Distribute it evenly over the entire surface.
BAKING AN APPLE CRUMBLE RECIPE
For anyone who’s made an apple crisp or apple crumble before, we know our oven temperature might seem low. We think 350°F is spot on to yield an apple crumble where the apples still have a bit of bite and crunch to them and the topping is a beautiful golden brown. During testing, we discovered that baking this dessert at a higher temperature caused the topping to brown too quickly. It also softened the apple filling more than we wanted. Stick with the recipe as is; you won’t be disappointed.
REST PERIOD
Once the crumble is fully baked, remove it from the oven. Then marvel at how wonderful and appetizing and scrumptious it looks. Make sure to take a deep breath; isn’t it amazing how appetizing your kitchen smells? Wait at least 15 minutes before serving. For best results, we do want to serve this dessert warm, but not too hot.
SERVE
As mentioned off the top, only serve this apple dessert with a scoop or two of vanilla ice cream. If you can purchase a premium variety with little vanilla seeds floating throughout, now’s the time to get some. Then, portion a few scoops of this CARAMEL APPLE CRUMBLE RECIPE into dessert bowls. You can then top the individual servings with ice cream and wait just a minute or two for it to start melting over this amazing crumble. After that, wait for the oohs and aahs and then give yourself a pat on the back for creating a perfect dessert that everyone enjoys! In the off chance you have leftovers, transfer them to an airtight container and store in the fridge. Cold apple crumble is different, but so refreshing.
PIN IT!
This scrumptious recipe is so amazing and beautiful, make it and go viral by posting it on Facebook and Instagram with the hashtag #weekendatthecottage. Also, remember to PIN it to a favourite dessert or holiday board on PINTEREST or BOOKMARK this tab for easy access. SHARE it with friends so they can make it too. Thanks!
This is the best CARAMEL APPLE CRUMBLE RECIPE apple lovers have ever tasted!
Cook Mode Use cook mode to keep your screen on while cooking.
Ingredients
3 pounds Ontario apples, like McIntosh, Honeycrisp or Cortland
juice from ½ a lemon
For the crumble topping:
1 cup rolled oats
½ cup oat flour or unbleached all-purpose flour
½ cup dark brown sugar
½ cup pecans, chopped
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
½ cup of butter, chilled and cut into chunks
For the caramel sauce:
4 tablespoons butter
¼ cup cornstarch
¾ cup dark brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon kosher salt
¾ cup apple cider
To serve:
vanilla ice cream
Directions
Preheat oven to 350°F with the rack in the middle position. Grease an 8 x 11-inch baking dish with butter.
Prepare apples: Peel then core apples. Cut into ¼-inch chunks and place into a medium-sized mixing bowl. Sprinkle with lemon juice and toss to coat.
Prepare crumble topping: Place oats, flour, brown sugar, pecans, cinnamon and salt in a bowl and stir together. Add chunks of butter. Using your fingers, rub mixture together until blended and crumbly.
Prepare caramel sauce: Melt butter in a small saucepan on medium-high heat. Add cornstarch and stir to combine. Add brown sugar, stirring until bubbly and melted. Sprinkle then stir in salt and cinnamon, followed by apple cider. Keep stirring while the sauce comes to temperature and thickens. Remove from heat. Set aside.
Assemble crumble: Pour caramel sauce over apples. Stir gently but thoroughly to fully coat. Transfer apple mixture to prepared baking dish. Sprinkle with crumble topping, spreading the topping out evenly across the surface.
Transfer to oven and bake for 40 minute or until apples are tender and caramel is bubbling. Remove from oven, leaving crumble to cool for 15 minutes before serving.
To serve: Transfer scoops of crumble to small bowls. Top each serving with a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream. Serve immediately.
Until Cottage Season
