Best Crumble Topping (apple and berries)

I had a good bagful of cooking apples from my parents apple tree.  I've made crumble slightly differently every time, but always pretty much along these lines, it's a pretty loose recipe so substitute and vary as required.

Music: Baked this whilst the baby was having his night time feed, so 'In the Night Garden' accompanied this bake - #thuglife.









Makes 2 large crumbles so can freeze one - halve these if only making one - I used 2 Pyrex trays like these, they're good and deep: 

 

 

Ingredients:

300g plain flour
300g oats
300g soft brown sugar
250g butter cut into small cubes
6 digestive biscuits, crushed
Zest of 1 orange
maple syrup/honey/golden syrup
nutmeg

10 cooking apples
frozen/fresh berries
cinnamon/star anise
100g sugar
dusting of flour

Method

For the best crumble topping for any crumble:

Combine the flour, oats, sugar, biscuits, nutmeg, zest and 200g of the butter.

Rub butter into mixture to make crumbly mix.

Add maple syrup and mix through.

Reserve the remaining 50g butter to dot on top

For the fruit mix:





Peel and chop apples, leave some bits big for a little bite, and some very small for good goo.

Dust with cinnamon or add a couple of star anise (recommended)

Mix through sugar (use more if apples are particularly sour)

Dust with flour, this is just to slightly limit the liquid produced.

Top with the best crumble mix.  There should be enough for a generous thick topping.