Don’t want to make an apple pie, but want that comforting cozy goodness? Make Apple Crumble instead. You can skip making a pie crust and have a healthier dessert too!
This recipe is a tribute to Apple visionary Steve Jobs, who saw the beauty in simplicity and living your true life. Steve was a vegetarian and animal lover. (Even in the early years, iPhoto face-recognition software recognized cat faces as well as human ones.) What Jobs said about work applies just as well to cooking:
Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work, and the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking, and don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it, and like any great relationship it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking. Don’t settle.
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.
This recipe was inspired by my mother-in-law Catherine Watson’s Dutch Apple Cake. I wrote this recipe when she was ninety-two, when she was still finding love and purpose in her life with a fascinating mix of hospitality, home cooking, and hard work for social justice. When I thanked her, I made the mistake of saying she had made a difference. “Still am making one!” she piped up from her nursing-home bed. She was right, too.
Thank you, Steve Jobs and Mother Watson, for making the world a better place and for moving others to join you.
| Prep Time | 30 minutes |
| Passive Time | 50 minutes |
| Servings |
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- 2 pounds Granny Smith or other baking apples
- 1/4 cup white sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- pinch salt
- 1/4 cup Earth Balance coconut spread or buttery spread or coconut oil
- 1/2 cup white whole wheat flour or all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup walnuts
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons water
Ingredients
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- Preheat oven to 400°F. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan.
- Cut each apple into quarters and cut out the core. Slice each quarter into four long slices, then cut slices across three or four times. Put apple pieces into baking pan as you go.
- Mix sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in a small bowl. Sprinkle over apples.
- Mix flour and brown sugar in the bowl used for sugar mixture. Chop walnuts and stir into flour mixture. Melt coconut spread in a microwave-safe container, about 30 seconds on high power. Pour spread over flour mixture and stir until all flour is coated with butter, then crumble over top of apples.
- Pour water into container used to melt coconut spread, swish around to pick up remaining flavor, and pour into pan along the edge without wetting the topping.
- Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until topping browns slightly and apples are fork tender. Let cool for at least 10 minutes.
- Serve warm. Keeps covered at room temperature for a few days. Best reheated briefly before serving.
If you want a sweeter or just more colorful dish, replace two or three of the Granny Smith apples with red baking apples such as Fujis or Galas. Avoid Red Delicious apples, which have a higher water content and turn to mush when baked.
