A couple weeks ago I received loads of homegrown apples from my friends Devi and Swati. Between the two of them I had over 35 apples!  How fast can we eat all these apples I wondered. I figured this would be the perfect time to make my Cardamom Spiced Warm Apple Almond Crumble.

Every fall and wintertime I get requests to make this apple almond crumble. It is my go-to dessert on cool nights when we head to a friend’s place or for a Saturday or Sunday evening dessert for the family. Served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and accompanied by hot coffee or tea, it doesn’t get any better than this warm dessert on a chilly evening.

Cardamom Spiced Warm Apple Almond Crumble

Ingredients:

• 12-14 small apples chopped. About 4-5 cups.
• 1/3 cup raisins
• 2 cups brown sugar
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tsp Cardamom
•  1 tsp Cinnamon
• 1 tsp Vanilla
• 1 cup Old fashioned oats
• 1 cup Almond Meal
• 1/2 cup All-purpose flour
• 1 stick Butter
• 2 tsp brandy if you want
• 1/2 tsp salt

Cook’s Notes: This recipe is very easy to get creative with. You can add less sugar, leave out the cardamom and add pumpkin spice instead, or add dried cranberries, dried apricots and dates to the apple mixture. You can also choose to add fresh apricots along with the apples. I’ve also made the same dessert with pears instead of apples.

Here is a quick video of my daughter Rani making this dessert.

Directions:

• Pre-heat oven to 375.
• Peel, core, and cut the apples and place them in a bowl of lemon water so they don’t turn brown.
• Place the raisins in warm water for 5 minutes to plump up. Drain and set aside.
• Spread 1 tbsp butter in a baking pan and set aside.

• When all the apples are cut, take the apple slices out of the lemon water and place in a mixing bowl.  Add 1 tsp vanilla, drained raisins, cardamom, and 1 cup brown sugar and mix. Set aside. You can add brandy if you like at this time.

• In another mixing bowl mix together dry ingredients. Almond meal, oats, flour, cinnamon, and 1-cup brown sugar, and mix together.
• Cut into small pieces the remainder of the stick of butter and roughly mix into the dry mix so it forms a coarse meal.

• In the buttered baking pan pour the apple mixture.  Spread the dry mixture over the apples and press down so the dry mix can get absorbed into the apples as they cook.  Cover and bake for 45 minutes.

• After 45 minutes, take the wrap off and very lightly stir the topping so that it sinks lightly into the apples.  Cover and place back in the oven and bake for an additional 15 minutes until the apple crumble is bubbly.  Take out of oven and let it cool.
• Sprinkle powdered sugar and serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

Happy Baking 😋🍎!!