Apple Crumble Recipe with Oats (Vegan) (2024)

FAQs

What is vegan crumble made of? ›

To Make the Crumble Topping

In a medium bowl, combine the vegan butter and plain white flour. Using two knives or a pastry cutter, chop up the vegan butter into tiny pieces until evenly distributed throughout the flour. Add the rolled oats, sugar, flaky sea salt and cinnamon.

The main reason your crumble topping isn't crunchy is probably because you haven't used Demerara sugar. Although, it could also be that you've got your topping ingredient quantities wrong: either too much or not enough flour and butter alongside the sugar.

White sugar plus molasses

A combination of white sugar and molasses is your best bet for a brown sugar substitute, as that's exactly what brown sugar is made of (1). To make your own light brown sugar, mix 1 cup, or 200 grams (g), of granulated white sugar with 1 tablespoon (tbsp.), or 15 milliliters (mL), of molasses.

To do this properly, you first need to make sure that the topping is still a little lumpy. A crumble topping is made by rubbing butter into dry ingredients (flour, sugar and sometimes ground almonds, too). Once this is done, wet your hands, and mix the topping even more, allowing it to form into larger clumps.

No, our crumb topping recipe uses cold butter, which is mixed into the sugar and flour mixture. Melted butter would not work for this recipe.

In baking, you can use vegan butter, applesauce, dairy-free yogurt, coconut oil, coconut butter, olive oil, nut butter, mashed banana and mashed avocado. In cooking, you can use olive oil, coconut oil, vegetable stock, or avocado oil to replace butter.

Place the flour, demerara sugar and butter into a mixing bowl and rub with your fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in the oats. Scatter onto the apples and then sprinkle the extra sugar on top. Bake for 40-45 mins until golden and bubbling.

Use the Right Amount of Butter

Not enough butter, and your topping will be a dry, floury mess. Too much butter and your topping will become a greasy blob or disappointingly soggy.

It is often mixed with a small amount of cold liquid to create a slurry to thicken sauces. When added to cake, cookie, pie filling and shortbread recipes, cornstarch helps create a crumbly and tender dessert-like texture. Commercially, cornstarch is often used as an anti-caking agent.

First, adding a teaspoon of baking powder to the flour mixture makes the crumble topping more tender. Second, using cold butter and working it into the flour mixture makes for a pastry-like topping reminiscent of pie crust. Pro tip: Crumble topping freezes incredibly well and can be kept on hand for crumble anytime.

What can I use instead of lemon in apple crumble? ›

In baking recipes, lime or orange juice can be used as substitutes for lemon juice in equal amounts. However, keep in mind they may give sweet desserts a slightly different flavor.

Combining white sugar with molasses may be a better brown sugar substitute, but if you don't have molasses, other liquid sweeteners like honey, maple syrup, or agave nectar will work as well. You should mix a tablespoon or two of the liquid sweetener into a scant 1 cup of white sugar to replace a cup of brown sugar.

And for that crunchy topping, it's best to use brown sugar. White sugar is fine, and the crumble texture is a bit lighter.

Use the Right Amount of Butter

Not enough butter, and your topping will be a dry, floury mess. Too much butter and your topping will become a greasy blob or disappointingly soggy.

First, adding a teaspoon of baking powder to the flour mixture makes the crumble topping more tender. Second, using cold butter and working it into the flour mixture makes for a pastry-like topping reminiscent of pie crust. Pro tip: Crumble topping freezes incredibly well and can be kept on hand for crumble anytime.

Cobbler: A fruit dessert made with a top crust of pie dough or biscuit dough but no bottom crust. Crisp/crumble: In Alberta, the terms are mostly interchangeable. Both refer to fruit desserts similar to cobbler but made with a brown sugar streusel topping sometimes containing old-fashioned rolled oats.