Fennel and Apple Crumble

This Fennel and Apple Crumble combines tender baked apples with subtly sweet fennel, finished with a buttery, spiced crumble topping. A simple yet impressive seasonal dessert that highlights fresh produce and warming flavors, perfect for autumn or winter baking.

Ingredients and substitutions for Fennel and Apple Crumble

• Apples: The apples used here were Granny Smith apples thanks to their firm texture and light sweetness. It is recommended to use either Granny Smith or Royal Gala. These hold their shape during baking and a slight sweetness which requires less added sugar.
• Sugar: The brown sugar helps not only add sweetness but also add a lightly caramelized flavor. Though you could replace with raw sugar which has a similar flavor profile, but larger grains so the final texture will likely be slightly different.
• Flour: Plain or all purpose flour is best to create a nice light crumb to our crumble. Though you won’t work the flour much so bread flour, at a pinch, would work here.
• Ground cinnamon and nutmeg: Ground cinnamon and nutmeg add a depth of flavor to our filling and compliment the fennel and apple perfectly, however, you can omit one or both, if you prefer.
• Butter: Unsalted butter was used, though salted would work well here, simply omit the salt from the crumble if you used salted butter. I have not tried this dish with non dairy butter or coconut oil so cannot speak to what the dish would be like with either.
• Sliced almonds: The sliced almonds dd a great textural difference and complimentary flavor to the apples and fennel, though you could remove if you are allergic or don’t like them. You could replace with roughly chopped walnuts or pecans for a perfect fall flavor, if these are easier to source.

See recipe card for quantities.

How to make Fennel and Apple Crumble:

Step 1: Soften your fennel: Butter, brown sugar and fennel in a frying pan cooks low and slow to soften.

Step 2: Add the apples: Toss in and stir in the apples to help soften them before spooning into your baking dish.

Step 3: Combine the crumble: Stir all the dry crumble ingredients together before adding in ⅔'s of the butter, cutting it in until a rough crumble mixture forms.

Step 4: Spoon on top: Crumble over the top nice and evenly and top with the remaining butter.

Step 5: Bake: Until truly golden before removing.

Step 6: Serve: Spoon into serving dishes whilst warm and top with cream, custard or scoops of ice cream. Enjoy!!

More apple dishes you'll enjoy

Apple Crumble

Amish Apple Fritters

Welsh Eve's Pudding

Fennel and Apple Crumble

Sylvie Taylor

This Apple and Fennel Crumble is a flavorful upgrade to traditional fruit crisps. The natural sweetness of apples blends with aromatic fennel, while a crunchy sliced almond and brown sugar topping delivers the perfect bite. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or yogurt for a rustic dessert everyone will love.

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Prep Time 25 minutes mins

Cook Time 35 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr

Course Dessert

Servings 6

Calories 307 kcal

Ingredients

  

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Base

• 14 grams / 1 tablespoon butter
• 12 grams / 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 fennel bulb based removed, halved and finely sliced
• 450 grams / 3 medium apples peeled, cored, halved and finely sliced

Crumble Topping

• 120 grams / ¾ cup plain flour
• 60 grams / ¾ cup sliced almonds
• 40 grams / 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2 grams / 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 55 grams / 4 tablespoons butter room temperature and cubed

Instructions

 

Base

• Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350F.
• Heat the butter on low heat, add in the fennel and sugar, cooking approximately 8 minutes, stirring every few minutes to cook evenly.
• Add the apples and continue cooking, stirring to soften the apples up a little, cooking for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally to cook evenly.
• Place the apple and fennel mixture into your baking dish and spread out evenly.

Crumble topping

• Place the flour, sliced almonds, sugar, salt, ground cinnamon and ground nutmeg into a bowl and stir to combine.
• Toss in 40 grams / 3 tablespoons of the cubed butter and cut together until it resembles a rough crumb mixture.
• Spoon over the apple fennel mixture evenly and spread out until fully covered.
• Top with small cubes of the remaining butter.
• Bake for 35 minutes until golden brown.
• Remove and allow to cool to warm.
• Spoon into bowls and serve with some pouring cream or scoops of ice cream.
• Dig in!

Notes

• Apples: The apples used here were Granny Smith apples thanks to their firm texture and light sweetness. It is recommended to use either Granny Smith or Royal Gala. These hold their shape during baking and a slight sweetness which requires less added sugar.
• Sliced almonds: The sliced almonds dd a great textural difference and complimentary flavor to the apples and fennel, though you could remove if you are allergic or don’t like them. You could replace with roughly chopped walnuts or pecans for a perfect fall flavor, if these are easier to source.
• Flavor of fennel: The anise flavor in fennel is a really beautiful flavor alongside the apples, though if you really can't stand it, this would work well without or even replacing the apples for pears would be great here.
• Baking dish: The baking dish used here is 24.5x17 cm / 9.5x6.5 inches which is small to medium sized.

Recipe by Roamingtaste

Nutrition

Calories: 307kcal

Keyword almond baking, apple, fall dish, pudding

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