Turn leftovers and kitchen staples into an apple crumble

After a scorcher of a summer, the temperatures are starting to fall and we’re craving hearty, filling foods. And you can’t go wrong with an apple crumble.

What you'll need

For the apple filling:

• five or six apples
• one or two tablespoons of sugar
• a teaspoon of cinnamon (optional)
• a splash of water

For the crumble topping:

• 150g plain flour
• 75g porridge oats
• 75g butter or baking spread
• 75g sugar

Don't worry if you don't have oats.

You can just use 225g flour instead.

How to make it

1.  Heat your oven to 190°C (170°C fan).
2.  Peel and core the apples, then chop them into small chunks. Leave the skin on if it’s still in good condition.
3.  Put the apples into a saucepan with the sugar, cinnamon and a splash of water.
4.  Cook over a medium heat for around five to 10 minutes, until the apples start to soften, but don’t let them go completely mushy.
5.  Tip the apples into an ovenproof dish.
6.  To make the crumble, rub the butter or baking spread into the flour until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs.
7.  Stir in the oats and sugar.
8.  Sprinkle the crumble mixture evenly over the apples.
9.  Bake for around 30-35 minutes, until the topping is golden and the apples are bubbling around the edges.

Serve warm on its own or with a little custard, yoghurt or ice cream if you have some.

A great way to use up bruised apples

If you have apples that are looking a bit bruised, soft or past their past, they don’t necessarily have to go in the bin.

As long as they’re safe to eat, don’t smell bad or aren’t rotten and mouldy, they’ll be perfect in a tasty dessert.

And even if some of the apple is bruised or damaged, you can just cut those bits off and use the rest.

An apple crumble is also a perfect option if you have lots of apples that you don’t know what to do with before they go bad or might get forgotten in your fruit bowl.

How it saves you money

Apple crumble lets you turn inexpensive, everyday ingredients into a proper autumn dessert, including items you’ve already paid for that you might be about to chuck out.

For example, a single 1kg bag of oats only costs about 85p in the supermarket.

That’s cheaper than a packet of crumble mix less than half the size.

So it’s really useful to keep ingredients like this, as well as flour and sugar, in your cupboard, so you’ve got options when fruit you’ve bought is about to go bad.

Apple crumble’s also a great option because it freezes really well.

If you can’t eat the whole dish at once, just portion it up before baking and pop it in the freezer.

You can then cook it from frozen until it’s piping hot throughout.

Alternatively, you could freeze portions of cooked crumble and reheat them when you fancy a quick dessert.