Easy Apple and Strawberry Crumble Recipe

Ever tried apple and strawberry crumble? If not, you ABSOLUTELY NEED to! The two go hand in hand for a deliciously fresh and juicy fruit crumble. And with its own cinnamon-spiced strawberry sauce and shortbread biscuit crisp crumb topping, you don't even need custard!

Apple Strawberry Crumble is FAR superior to an Old Fashioned Apple Crumble!

If you've ever had an apple tree in your garden, or you've got friends and family that do, you'll know that they all turn ripe at once and you're inundated. I've been known to chop and free 10kg of apples in a night as I can always turn them into something.

But my all-time favourite recipe to make with them is a fresh fruit crumble. It's SO easy. The apples don't need to look pretty, you can cut any bad parts off and you don't even have to peel them!

It's a fool-proof fruity dessert, too. It's similar to a cobbler, as there's no exact science to the ratios. If you use a little more here, or less there, it still works while getting creative with your own favourite herbs and spices.

Jump to:

• 🔪Equipment
• 🍓Ingredients
• 📋Instructions
• 💡Tips
• 🤔FAQ
• ➕More Fruit Crumble Recipes
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

🔪Equipment

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• Baking dish
• Chopping knife
• Chopping board
• Weighing scales*
• Measuring cups*
• Measuring spoons*
• Potato peeler*
• Apple corer*
• Mixing bowl*

*US/Metric: Kitchen scales or not, I've also provided measurements for cups, and spoons for my US friends, so you don't need all of the equipment above.

*Potato peeler: Do you have to peel apples for a crumble? Absolutely not. I often don't when prepping by the kilo to freeze ahead of time. It's still delicious and I love its homemade rustic style. Apple skin contains Vitamins A, C, and K, so why not?

*Apple Corer: my OXO apple corer (in the below photo) is my absolute favourite. It's not essential, as a knife and chopping board will work too, But it makes it a MUCH quicker job when you're prepping apples in the bulk!

*Mixing bowl: You don't need fancy kitchen gadgets for strawberry apple crisp provided you don't mind getting your hands stuck in to make cookie crumbs. In fact, it's the perfect activity to get the kids in involved - or you can make a crumble mixture with a food mixer.

🍓Ingredients

Note, you can find a full printable recipe card at the bottom of this page by clicking the link below:

Jump to Recipe

• Apples - I mostly use eating apples, but cooking apples work too. If you want the apples to be super soft with no bite in the texture, then I recommend chopping the apples more on the finer side
• Strawberries - juicy fresh and ripe strawberries are trimmed (hulled) and halved. Alternatively, you could try 2x 14oz/400g can of tinned strawberries, but you may want to drain the light syrup so it's less runny overall
• Plain Flour/All Purpose Flour - it has 2 uses in my recipe. One is to thicken the apple and strawberry juices while they break down in the oven
• Sugar - you might notice caster sugar is often used for baking a strawberry crumble, but instead, I use granulated as it's often more accessible and melts in the sauce anyway. If anything, you may prefer caster sugar in the crumble topping. If you don't have any, you could use a food processor and give it a few spins
• Butter - without it, the fruit crumble top would be very dry, powdery
• Ground cinnamon - this is an optional choice, but warm spices throughout this crisp dessert are divine. But you could be more adventurous by using fresh mint for example.
• Sliced almonds - these are sprinkled on the top to toast and add a delicate crunch and a hint of marzipan flavour. It's not essential, although I love how they always look, too.
• Lemon juice - while doing all of the prep, you may no necessarily need it, but it should add a subtle tang. It also prevents the apples from turning brown when exposed to air, which some say can create an undesirable sweetener taste. My recommendation is to prep the apples last if you don't have any lemon juice

Optional Strawberry Crunch Crumble Ingredients:

If preferred, you can also bulk up your strawberry crumble topping with oats for extra crunch and texture, or even chopped mixed nuts like pecans, walnuts, hazelnuts, pistachios, cashews, etc.

📋Instructions

Making apple strawberry crisp is very simple. You just need to chop some fruit for the base and rub crumbs together for the top, then bake.

1. First, preheat your oven at 190 degrees celcius fan / 210 conventional / gas mark 5 / 375F and get a large, deep baking dish ready that's roughly the same size as a sheet of A4 paper/US letter - or a round pie dish is fine!

Top Layer (Crumble Fruit Crisp):

1. Add all of the crumble topping mixture in a large mixing bowl (except the almond flakes).
2. Rub together with your fingertips until you get crumbs - but try not to overdo it as having lumps is good for extra crunch, then set aside.

Bottom Layer (Strawberry Apple Mixture):

• Trim the leaves off your strawberries and slice in half.
• Now peel, core and chop the apples into chunks before mixing in the lemon juice to prevent them from turning brown.
• Place the fruit in the baking dish and mix in the cinnamon, plain flour, sugar and mix in the baking dish.
• Sprinkle over the cookie crumble topping and spread evenly and top with the almond slices.
• Bake in the oven for 40 minutes and enjoy alone or with a serving of vanilla custard.

💡Tips

Storing

To store in the fridge: I always leave hot food like this fresh strawberry crumble to reach room temperature first before placing it in the fridge. This prevents raising my fridge's temperature, which may encourage harmful bacteria on the rest of my food.

As much as I'd love to place my apple strawberry crunch recipe in an airtight container, 99% of the time I will leave it in the baking dish and cover it with tin foil or clingfilm (plastic wrap). I then keep it in the fridge for up to 5 days.

Or in an ideal world, I would bake strawberry and apple crisp in 8 individual baking dishes that have air-tight container lids. Let me know if you can find any?

Store in the freezer: To ensure this strawberry crumble recipe still looks appetising, I recommend baking it in a dish that's also suitable for freezing up to 3 months - although I have been known to leave up to 6.

Reheating

Microwave: In all honesty, we commonly spoon a refrigerated portion into a microwaveable, lidded container and cook for 2-3 minutes. It's the quickest and cheapest way, but if you don't want a soggy crumble, I recommend reheating in the oven:

Oven: Sometimes, we'll place the dish back in the oven. Initially, I preheat the oven to 170c fan/190c/375F/Gas Mark 5 and bake while covered with tin foil* for 20 minutes, then remove the cover and give it a final 15 minutes.

*This prevents it from drying out and burning

Oven from Frozen: If I'm able to plan ahead, I'll defrost my apple betty crumble in the fridge for 24 hours, although often it needs longer to fully defrost.

Otherwise, some ovens have a defrost settings which I often use - which works at a very low temperature.

Microwave from frozen: If I have portions of apple & berry crumble in the freezer, I also sometimes use the defrost setting on my microwave

🤔FAQ

Is this a healthy strawberry healthy? Sadly not, but it's made with very affordable and accessible ingredients. However, you can make it a Slimming World crumble by using sweetener and solely oats, but cooked fruit must be counted.

Alternatively, for a low-carb, keto fruit crumble, I would omit the apples and just make a keto strawberry crumble as mixed berries have a low glycemic index (low GI) and use ground almonds instead of flour for the top and a natural sweetener. For a thickener, I would use 1 teaspoon of xanthan gum.

What makes crumble crunchy? There are several things that make a crunchier crumble. You can mix in chopped nuts, such as pecans or walnuts that crunch when baked. Or, something as simple as not rubbing the crumbs too fine with your fingers.

How do you make a crumble not soggy? By simply avoiding reheating in the microwave. And make sure you use a tablespoon or two of plain flour in your fruit mixture with very juicy berries, plums and strawberries to avoid the topping disintegrating into it.

Can I swap some strawberries for rhubarb? Of course! To make strawberry rhubarb apple crisp, you can swap half the strawberries for very small rhubarb chunks and continue.

How can I make it a vegan strawberry crumble? By choosing vegan sugar (more info here) and opting for a diary free butter spread or margarine alternative.

➕More Fruit Crumble Recipes

• Apple and blackberry crumble
• Christmas apple and mincemeat crumble
• Apple and oat crumble
• Plum and chocolate chip cookie crumble
• Apple and banana crumble
• Pear and blueberry crumble

📖 Recipe