(Music)
Gemma's Bigger Bolder Baking Baking Apple Crumble with My Mum
Hi Bold Bakers! Welcome to my kitchen in Ireland. This is a very special episode because today
I'm baking with my mum and we are going to make the very first dessert I ever made with
her which is Apple Crumble. So let's get baking!
We're going to start out by preparing our apples. Now for cooking apples in Ireland,
we use something that's called Bramly apple which is very different to what we have in
the United States. It's very sour to eat but it works great in pies. It cooks down really well.
So mum, I'm going to ask you to peel and chop these apples.
We're going to need around four or five because they bake down really well but you want a
lot. So when you were children, you used to dip them in sugar. Yeah, I remember. And slices
of apple in sugar to eat them. You have to put a lot of sugar on these apples because
to eat them raw, they're actually really hard to eat. They're quite bitter. But I remember my mum used to toss
them in sugar and as she was making the Apple Crumble we used to take them out and eat them.
Even when you weren't supposed to.
They don't need to be chopped too fine because they do break down really easily. And because
it is so bitter, and I think this is the reason though I wouldn't be entirely sure,
it actually browns rather quickly when it's exposed to the air so generally speaking I'd
put a little dab of lemon juice.
Yeah, there was a lot of baking in our house when we were growing up because I have five
kids all together and then my mum and dad. So there were constantly meals being made.
And baking. And buns. And all sorts of stuff. And we enjoyed it. We enjoyed doing it. It
was kind of like our hobby really. Food is our hobby.
It's my family's hobby. Eating is our hobby. Ok, mum you keep going with the apples and
I'm going to get started on the crumble topping.
So we're going to start by weighing out our ingredients. Our flour, our sugar and our butter.
So in Ireland, we're fortunate to have fantastic produce. And Kerrygold is one of them. It's
a beautiful Irish butter. It's a little bit salty. It's really rich and creamy. And where
I can in the United States, I try and buy it and use it in my baking.
Now all you have to do is rub the butter into the flour. Now I like to use my hands. Now
the texture you're looking for is some small lumps of butter and some big lumps. It does
not have to be perfect. Kind of like rough bread crumbs.
That's what kind of keeps it crisp, isn't it? Exactly. It's when the butter melts and
creates those nice chunks.
So this is the texture that you want. There are a few lumps of butter and then there are
some fine bits. This is going to bake beautifully. And as you can tell, it was really fast to make.
Apple Crumble is a very traditional dish in Ireland because we're big on puddings and tarts.
And something that you can scoop into a bowl. That's kind of good for the cold weather.
There's no such thing as bad weather, Gem. Only bad clothes. Yeah, fair enough.
Now that we have everything ready, we're simply going to bring it all together. Just go ahead
and fill up your serving dish with apples. And I like to give a generous amount because
usually these apples cook down quite a bit. Now they've gone a little bit brown but actually
it won't affect the flavor. It's just that we've been taking our time and chatting instead
of working. I think that's quite enough, do you think? Yeah, that's perfect.
Like I said earlier, these apples are actually quite tart so a really good idea is to toss
these in a little bit of sugar just to bring out the sweetness.
So now Gemma, I think it's ready for topping. It sure is. I'm going to generously just scatter
on the crumble topping everywhere. This might seem like a lot of crumble topping but it
actually isn't. It's a good ratio to the apples.
As the apples cook as well, they sink and the crumble goes down with it so you need
to know it's there, don't you?
And this is actually the same dish that we used however 20 something years. I don't know.
How long have you had this dish for? Probably 40 years. Well, I'm not 40! Quite a long time.
Ok, mum. Looking good. We're ready for the oven. Yep. I'm looking forward to having some
when it's finished. Me too. It's going to be yummy. With some cream of course. Yep!
Bake your crumble at 350 degrees F for around 40 minutes or until brown on top.
While our crumble is in the oven, we're going to whip some cream to serve with it. Now I'm
very fortunate to live near a dairy where we get beautiful cream in Wexford. It's some
of the best I've ever tasted. And a lot of you have a lot of questions: how do you whip
cream and what do you put in it? Simply, I don't put anything in it. In Ireland, we get
such beautiful flavored cream that it is best just on its own. So mum, I'm going to get
you to show them how to whip it.
And it really is very simple. Really all we do is empty it into a bowl. And then we take
our little hand mixer and we whip on medium speed until it forms soft peaks.
So now, you know, that's what you really want. A nice soft kind of finish. And that's it,
that's how simple it is to whip cream. You can actually do it by hand as well with a
hand whisk. I like to keep it plain. I don't like to add anything to it because I like
it to complement the dessert that it's going with.
Our timer's gone off so let's check on our crumble.
It smells just like your crumble. Our Apple Crumble is out of the oven and it looks fantastic.
What do you think, mum? It looks wonderful and it smells delicious.
Should we have a little taste? A lovely buttery kind of a crumb. I'm first in line, Gem. Ok,
so let's dig in. Nobody to share it with.
And then top it off with your freshly whipped cream. The perfect complement to Apple Crumble.
So now for the moment of truth, we're going to give it a taste. It looks gorgeous. Mmm.
Yep. It's yummy. Absolutely gorgeous. You can't beat simple Irish cooking like that made with
really good ingredients. And just perfect for this cold day, isn't it? And this is the
same recipe my mum made when we were kids. And in my opinion, if it ain't broke don't fix it.
We still have to share it with all of them. No, we don't. We just have to tell them about it. Oh, yeah. That's true.
It's delicious. Thank you, Gemma. Thanks a million, it's gorgeous. Thanks for being here.
And thank you for coming to visit us.
I really hope you all have a fantastic Christmas, and from my family to yours.
(In Irish): Merry Christmas to you all!