A warm welcome to the start of the season of apple crumbles

WHEN it comes to cooking, various dishes have many characteristics that could be borrowed from descriptions of people, writes Charlie Elder.

There are neurotic recipes with ingredients that require fussing, worrisome in nature and in constant need of attention or they go to pieces. There are grouchy and unforgiving dishes that sulk and curdle if treated badly. And then there are the good-natured meals: warm, comforting and easy-going, which come into their own in the autumn and winter, including casseroles and crumbles.

Even for a cook of questionable ability such as myself, one can’t go too far wrong with stews and hearty baked puddings. And this week I made my first crumble of the year, using apples from the garden tree and home-grown rhubarb.

The apple crop has not been good this season for some reason. It may be down to my no longer keeping bees, which used to work wonders with pollination, or perhaps the weather in spring was a factor. Either way, the red devil variety, which hang like Christmas baubles from the branches, are a bit thinly spread.

In previous years they have weighed heavy, growing to a handsome size, and I have often ended up with too many to know what to do with – though perhaps too few to make crushing and juicing worthwhile. The variety is sweet when cooked and makes a great crumble, and I combined it with a few stalks from our single rhubarb plant, which is growing strongly and can spare a stem or two.

Crumble is the kind of baking I like – tolerant when it comes to timing. None of the precision required of Great British Bake Off recipes. Cooked well, it melts in the mouth, with a sweet and crunchy topping adding texture. Old-fashioned and unsophisticated, perhaps, but an autumn treat. Here’s to the crumble season ahead.