Breakfast Apple Crumble
As I may have mentioned once or twice, I love apples. Not all apples are created equal, though. With some patient, slow cooking of green cooking apples - that’s where it’s at for me.
HERE is my breakfast take on a lovely apple favourite; the crumble.
But apple crumble is… a dessert?!
Nope - it’s whatever you say it is. With a few tweaks, this can be deceptively healthy. I’ve scoured the internet, experimented and tweaked, and found my favourite version of the breakfast apple crumble, full of nutrients. I couldn’t think of a better way to start my day. I feel full, comforted and also very accomplished!
Normally for a crumble, there’s quite a lot of sugar. But even with tart apples like cooking apples - if you take your time simmering them in water, they get a lovely, sweet taste with their natural sugar. A bit of honey to take the edge off is all you need in my opinion. If you can’t eat honey, then some quality maple syrup is my best suggestion. But of course you can put in a bit of sugar too, it’s not the end of the world - just keep in mind you do not need much! Be brave and try as little sweetener as possible, you can always add more later. The cinnamon adds a lovely sweetness too, and makes it smell and taste much naughtier than it is!
The second ingredient that makes a normal crumble a bit less healthy, is the butter. You usually mix the dry ingredients with butter to make the crumble. I thought to myself: why can’t I use nut butter? That’s essentially just - MORE nuts in your breakfast, which is calorie dense, yes, but leaves you feeling full in a good way and will give you the best fats and a good amount of protein and other nutrients too. So my crumble includes 0% normal butter! Of course you can choose butter if you want, you are always free to tweak all my recipes to fit your own tastes, restrictions, or how you feel on the day.
Note: I love a quickly made breakfast on weekdays, and I’m sure many of you do too. This one takes a little bit more time to prepare, so I recommend making it on a Sunday (or whatever your day off is!), it’ll warm you up and chill you out!
Alternatively, you can make this the day before, let it cool down and put it in the fridge overnight, and just reheat in the oven (or even the microwave) before you eat it. You may get some leftovers so keep this in mind.
Healthy Breakfast Apple Crumble
Ingredients
3 apples, I prefer green cooking apples or granny smiths
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup water
1/2 cup flour, I recommend wholemeal
1/2 cup rolled oats
2 teaspoons of sweetener of your choice; honey (my recommendation!), syrup or sugar
50 g nut butter (a mix of different ones is fine!) - you might need a little bit more
A handful of raw, crushed/finely chopped nuts, again, a mix is fine
1/2 teaspoon of grated/ground nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon (yes, again!)
A tablespoon of chia seeds, flaxseeds, or protein powder
Some natural or greek yoghurt for serving
Instructions
Preheat your oven to about 180º Celcius, around 160º if fan assisted. (350º Fahrenheit.)
Peel the green apples, remove the core and slice quite thinly. Place them in a saucepan, drizzle 1 tsp of cinnamon over them and cover with water. Cover the pan with a lid, and bring it to boil. Immediately bring the heat down to low, remove the lid and let simmer for about 15 minutes or until apples are soft and the liquid has reduced a bit. You do want the apples to be slightly watery, so don’t worry about the amount of liquid. Get ready for a heavenly aroma in your kitchen!
Meanwhile, make the crumble: Mix the flour, oats, nuts, second teaspoon of cinnamon, seeds/protein powder of your choice and nutmeg until well combined. Add the nut butter and, using your fingers, rub it into the mixture until it resembles crumbs.
Evenly place the apples along the bottom of an oven-proof dish (or use individual ramekins). Gently drizzle your sweetener (honey, in my case!) over the apples. You do not need a lot of sweetener, trust me. Top evenly with the crumble mixture. Bake for 20 or until the crumble is slightly golden (slightly less time if using ramekins). All ovens are different, so keep an eye on them.
Serve each portion of crumble with a generous dollop of yoghurt. My favourite is greek yoghurt as it’s so thick and lovely. If you want a bit more sweetness, you can drizzle some honey (or your choice of sweetener) on the yoghurt as well.
PS: if you have any leftover bread, or bread crusts, you can quickly blitz it in a blender (or if you have already blended some bread in to crumbs) and add in with the dry ingredients to make the crumble = zero waste and an even bigger meal!
PS PS: You can vary this recipe soo much depending on what you use of dry ingredients, nuts and nut butters. Try different versions. My biggest tip though is, do not hold back on the nuts - they get so tasty in the oven and go extremely well with the apple. I usually use a mix of almond, hazelnuts and pistachios.
PS PS PS: I recognise that this recipe is a bit tough for those with nut allergies. However, it’s totally still possible to make a gorgeous crumble nut free. Just go for more oats, wholemeal flour, flaxseeds or bread crumbs or other dry things you can have, and to mix it in to a crumble go for the more traditional butter, or a little bit of oil. Maybe some coconut oil would be nice? Let me know, if you make it!
I’d love to hear and see how you got on with one of my absolute favourite breakfasts, what nuts, flour and seeds did you go for? Do you have any nice additions to share? Share your recipe with me on Instagram and tag @TheFromScratchBody and hashtag #TheFromScratchBody so I don’t miss it!
