My own recipe - Apple Crumble

For several months now I have toyed with the idea of creating my own recipe. I desperately want to create my own recipe for a cake but I still want to do some research on leaveners and proportions of ingredients. It really is fascinating to study; the chemistry and the combination of ingredients can make or break your recipe. But until I complete all the reading I want to do I decided to give a go at something a little more attainable: my own apple crumble.

When I normally make an apple crumble I use a store bought topping that I just add butter to and it's good to go. I absolutely love the way it all turns out so my goal is to improve upon that recipe and make it my own. So, I really just started with a list of the ingredients I wanted to use and just went for it. The only thing I did was to look on the box for where to start with ingredients and I made up the measurements. Here is what I came up with in my first attempt:

Kara's Apple Crumble, Version 1
1 cup oats
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
3 tbs flour
1 tbs cinnamon
1 stick unsalted butter
1 pinch of salt
4 large apples (I used 2 Fuji and 2 Gala. I had thought I was buying Honeycrisp instead of Gala at the store, but I picked from the wrong stack. I prefer the Fuji and will return to using just those in the future.)

I preheated the oven to 375 degrees. I then mixed all the dry ingredients together. I melted the butter and added it into the dry ingredients. I peeled and sliced all the apples and layered them in an oven friendly dish (I love, love, love my Denby dishes!). I topped off the apples with the crumble mixture and popped it all in the oven for 50 minutes.

The cook time was perfect; the apples were just soft enough and the crumble topping browned. Ryan graciously particpated in my first official taste test. Verdict: Meh.

I definitely overdid the oats. There were just too many and they overpowered the whole dish. I loved the small hint of cinnamon so I think I am happy with how much is in the recipe. I'm not sure where to go after this but I might just completely flip my measurements and do 1/3 cup oats and more of the flour and sugar. Who knows if it will work; that's part of the adventure! I would love to hear from people if they decide to try Version 1 and hear how they would change it. Can't wait to see how Version 2 turns out!