Ready to Crumble nourishing the soul

Passport & Plate - Nanny Helen's Apple Crumble

Australia | Wednesday, February 19, 2014 | 5 photos

INGREDIENTS
- Two cups of castor sugar
- One packet of unsalted butter (250g) at room temperature (make sure it is soft enough to tear into chunks. Don’t melt it.)
- Two cups of plain flour (sifted)
- Two cups of self-raising flour (sifted)
- Two large eggs - 6-7 large Granny Smith green apples. If only small apples are available use more (up to 10 should be fine).

METHOD
1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C.
2. Place sugar, plain flour, self-raising flour and eggs into a large mixing bowl.
3. Add the packet of butter to the dry ingredients in chunks.
4. Begin to use your fingers to lightly combine all the ingredients together. The end result should resemble a medium crumble and NOT a ball of dough or be a sand-like texture. Be delicate with the fingers.
5. Spread half of the mixture into a shallow rectangular well-greased cake tin (approx 36cm long x 24 cm wide).
6. Peel and core all the apples, and slice them into very thin pieces (round or rectangular shapes are fine).
7. Place the apples over the first layer of crumble and make sure every surface has been covered. Keep on building up the layers of apple until you run out. There should be enough for approximately 1-2 layers.
8. Spread the rest of the crumble mixture over the apples and make sure they are fully covered.
9. Bake for one hour at 180°C. If the top looks like it is starting to burn, slightly lower the temperature of the oven.

THE STORY
A dish that has nourished my family and friends for years is my nanny Helen’s apple crumble. My grandmother grew up in Poland in a religious household as the youngest of eight children. Spending time with her mother in the kitchen on Thursday evenings before Sabbath provided her with a repertoire of dishes that were essential to a traditional Jewish home.

The crumble is a buttery apple-studded delicacy with a rich crust that has become a regular addition to our Shabbat table and is always being requested from us by family and friends.

I recall preparing it with my nanny as a child in her kitchen. After a session of making ‘mud pies’ in the garden, I would be called inside and asked to help “crumble”. As a mud pie extraordinaire, it only seemed fair that I should demonstrate my fine motor skills in a real kitchen, where the ingredients were more then just garden soil and water. I would stand on a dining room chair so I could reach the bench top and watch over my grandmother’s shoulder as she craftily worked the batter together, occasionally allowing me to take part in the magical crumbling ritual.

My grandmother passed away when I was seven. I can no longer recall fine details about her, yet helping her bake remains a vivid memory. Now that I am older and have taken an interest in diverse cultural food landscapes and my own culinary history, I continue to work in the kitchen with my mum, re-creating recipes both new and old. Apple crumble has us fondly remembering that if nanny had not survived the hellish years of the Holocaust we would not have her recipes to bake in her honour.

Recipes are the treasures of our community that have been handed down from one generation to the next. They help us remember our past traditions, and have the ability to lovingly recall people – parents or grandparents, who are no longer with us. By feeding my soul with this heirloom recipe, I am continually able to affirm my connection with darling nanny.

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