Easy Gravenstein Apple Crumble, a Perfect Summer Dessert

Gravenstein Apple Crumble Recipe

The Gravenstien apples are here! With an early harvest, the apples are now available throughout Sonoma County. Gravenstein apples are avialable at local farmer’s markets, Oliver’s Markets in Santa Rosa and Cotati, and Andy’s Produce Market in Sebastopol.

If you’re looking for a simple delicious recipe that highlights the Gravenstien apple’s lovely tart flavor, here it is. This recipe is easier than making a pie because there is no crust to roll out. And most of you have the ingredients for the topping in your pantry already.

Ingredients for Our Gravenstein Apple Crumble Recipee

• 6 Gravenstein apples (5 cups), peeled, cored, and cut into bite-sized chunks
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon

For the topping

• ¾ cup flour
• ½ cup old-fashioned oats
• ½ cup brown sugar
• ½ cup chopped walnuts or almonds
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 stick butter, cold and cut into small cubes

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Butter an 8 x 8 baking dish and set aside. In a large bowl, mix apples, sugar, lemon juice, and cinnamon together. Pour this mixture into the buttered baking dish. In another bowl, combine flour, oats, nuts, sugar, and salt for the topping. Mix together. Put in cold cubes of butter last. With a pastry cutter (by hand) or with an electric mixer on low, mix the ingredients together slowly. The topping will have a crumbly appearance, almost like pebbles. When the butter is the size of peas, stop. Sprinkle the mixture over the apples. Bake for 50-55 minutes, until the topping is golden and the apples are soft and bubbly.

You will know the crumble is ready by the wonderful smell of baked Gravenstien apples in your kitchen. Serve warm, and top with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for a truly divine dessert.

The walnuts used in this recipe are from local English walnuts. The apples were bought at Oliver’s on Montecito Ave. in Santa Rosa, Ca. As our infosheet on Apples In Sonoma County shows, the Gravenstein is an all-round great apple, fit as a hand apple, and for baking, booking, and juicing. Indeed, it’s our favorite, but then we may be a bit biased, living in a hotspot for the Gravenstein Apple in the world, where the variety was first planted  in 1811, by Russian explorers.

Jo Ann Gleason lives in Santa Rosa, CA, and is a member of Slow Food Russian River.

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