I have become slightly obsessed with this apple crumble. It appeared in Good Food magazine in October (I cannot find a link to it on line) and my photograph doesn’t do it justice. But it’s one of those puddings that, once served up, I itch to eat and cannot be bothered to really photograph.

I have made this a lot recently and my partner says it tastes really Christmassy. I agree, but it only really started tasting Christmassy as we got into late November…

The ingredients for the underneath bit:

100g raisins

100g pitted soft dates, chopped up

85g light muscovado sugar

3 tablespoons of dark rum (I have also used sherry or marsala)

25g unsalted butter (you can leave this out to make it vegan and it doesn’t suffer for it)

1 teaspoon of mixed spice

Zest and juice of one lemon

A large dollop of marmalade (optional)

4 Bramley apples, about 800g in total, peeled and cored and cut into wedges or rings

The ingredients for the crumble topping:

125g plain flour (I mix a bit of wholemeal flour in there too)

100g unsalted butter (vegan butter works really well too)

50g light muscovado sugar

3 tablespoons of jumbo oats

25g flaked almonds – totally optional

What you do:

Heat the oven to 190C.

Put everything for the underneath bit into a large pan and cook on the hob until the butter (if you’re using but you don’t have to) has melted and the sugar is syrupy and it looks nice. I do this slowly for about 20 minutes.

Then toss into the pan a suitable dish. I use a Le Creuset thing that is approx 20cm square or an enamel roasting dish that is quite large (sorry to be vague but you will be okay). I let this cool.

To make the topping I put the flour and butter into a food processor and go past the fine breadcrumb stage and pulse until big clumps form. Then I stir in the sugar, oats and almonds (if using). Spread this on top of the fruit mixture. At first it will look like you don’t have enough mixture but don’t panic as it all works out. Cook for 30 mins until the top is bubbling and golden.

Leave to stand for about 10mins before serving with custard or cream or ice cream or all three. Oink, oink. It also works really well with non-dairy versions.

It’s delicious and wonderfully comforting and warming. I hardly make crumble any other way now, although I might find it all a bit much come the spring time.

*note: you can easily make this a few hours ahead, assemble, cover with foil and then put it in the oven as you sit down to main course.

Apologies again for the not great pic…

Making it suitable for anyone on a low-sugar/non dairy diet (ie me), method as above but slightly altered ingredients.

The ingredients for the underneath bit:

50g raisins

100g pitted soft dates, chopped up

3 tablespoons of dark rum (I have also used sherry or marsala), or water

25g vegan butter

1 teaspoon of mixed spice, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon

Zest and juice of one lemon

A large dollop of marmalade (optional)

4 Bramley apples, about 800g in total, peeled and cored and cut into wedges or rings. You can also do apples and pears, if using pears add them a bit later as they soften quicker.

The ingredients for the crumble topping:

125g wholemeal flour (I also add 20% Diversity XXX flour)

100g vegan butter

two tablespoons of light brown sugar

3 tablespoons of oats

3 tablespoons of ground almonds