This Mini Apple Crumble is the perfect little treat when you're craving something sweet and comforting. With cinnamon-spiced apples and a buttery, oat-and-walnut filled crumble topping, these beginner-friendly individual desserts are so easy to make and so hard to resist.
As the weather cools down and Fall rolls in, there's nothing cozier than a warm apple crumble. It's the ultimate dessert to enjoy while bundled up in a knit, with all the aromas of cinnamon and apples filling your home.
This apple crumble for two is super easy to whip up, making it ideal for those moments when you need something quick but still want all the classic, comforting goodness. Plus, they’re the perfect portion size to satisfy those sweet tooth cravings without overindulging!
Take it up a notch, and serve these individual apple crumbles with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, a drizzle of caramel sauce, or some creamy custard. The combination of warm crumble and cold, melty toppings is absolute heaven!
Celebrate Fall in full fervour by making these cozy, comforting treats: Roasted Tomato Basil Soup, Creamy Cajun Shrimp Pasta or Homemade Caramel Latte!
Table of Content
Ingredients
See recipe card for quantities.
- Apple - Honeycrisp, Pink Lady, Fuji and Granny Smith are some of the best apples for baking. You can use any one of them. If making a larger quantity, I’d suggest combining two varieties, such as a sweet apple and a tart apple.
- Brown Sugar - adds sweetness to the apple crumble. You can substitute with white granulated sugar.
- Lemon Juice - balances the sweetness of the dish and prevents the apple from browning.
- Cinnamon Powder - adds warm notes and makes apple crumble smell heavenly. You can additionally use a pinch of nutmeg too.
- Flour - It’s the base for the crumble topping. Use all-purpose white flour.
- Butter - I cut a stick of unsalted butter into small cubes for this recipe. Cold butter will make the crumble more crispy than melted butter.
- Walnuts - These add crunch and a nutty flavour. You can sub with pecans or almonds.
- Oats - rolled oats (also known as old-fashioned oats) provide a chewy texture and hold their shape well during baking. Quick oats can also be used, but are not as ideal since they would be less distinct in the topping after baking. You can skip oats altogether too. Check out my overnight tiramisu oats too!
For serving, top with a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream and a drizzle of caramel sauce.
How To Make Mini Apple Crumble
This recipe is SO easy to make and fills your home with the irresistible aroma of autumn. Let’s begin and happy baking!
- Make the apple filling by tossing the apple pieces, cinnamon powder, brown sugar and lemon juice together.
- To make the streusel topping, crumble together the plain flour, sugar, cinnamon, oats, and walnuts using your fingers.
- Divide the apple mixture into two ramekins.
- Top with crumble mixture. Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C (350°F) for 20 minutes until golden brown.
5. Your apple crumble dessert is ready! Let it rest for 5 minutes before serving. Enjoy warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and some caramel sauce.
Expert Tips
- For best flavour and texture, use fresh, crisp apples only.
- After filling the ramekins with apple filling, slightly bang the dish and smooth over with a fork to fill any big empty space. Otherwise, during baking, the crisp topping can sink, because the apples will soften during the process.
- Do not over mix the crumb topping; it will become like a paste and give a soggy crust. The crumbly texture is iconic for this dessert. If your topping does get too soft, you can add some extra oats or flour and purposely crumble the streusel with your fingers when spreading over the filling.
How To Serve Apple Crumble
The best part of baking in the ramekins is you can just eat out of it. No extra plates required. On a side note, Mac & Cheese for Two is also made in these ramekins.
Of course you can enjoy the mini apple crumble plain or with a sprinkling of icing sugar! But I highly recommend the following extra indulgent touches:
- Top each serving with a scoop of vanilla ice cream — it melts perfectly into the warm crumble. (Side note: Ice cream and hot desserts, like my Biscoff mug cake, make a dreamy combo!)
- You can also drizzle it with caramel sauce or maple syrup.
- Or spoon over some creamy custard for a heavenly combo.
- A dollop of whipped cream works great, too!
This is a cozy, quick dessert perfect for any occasion. Savour it as a post-meal dessert, curb your midnight sweet tooth cravings or serve it on the holiday table.
The single serving apple crumble can be served warm, cold or at room temperature. Although the combination of warm apples with a cold topping is the best!
Variations
- Switch up the apples with peaches or pears for a pear or peach Crumble. Be careful of the sugar when using peaches as they tend to be on the sweeter side.
- Don’t have/like walnuts? Add chopped pecans or almonds!
- Use vanilla extract or apple pie spice in the filling to amp up the flavour.
- You can totally adjust the amount of crumble topping. Increase if you like more crumble-to-filling ratio and decrease if you prefer more gooey apple filling.
- Use a ready-made pie crust, place it as the first layer in individual ramekins and turn this dessert into mini apple crumble pies.
FAQs
Apples with firm texture are ideal for baking apple desserts. If making for a crowd, I’d suggest mixing a variety of sweet and tart apples for maximum flavour.
Honeycrisp, Fuji and Pink Lady are some sweet varieties perfect for an apple crumble recipe. And Granny Smith and Braeburn are on the tart side.
Avoid soft, mealy apples like Gala and Red Delicious; they cook very quickly during baking and won’t provide texture to the dessert.
After they have completely cooled, wrap the ramekins in cling film. Place in the fridge for up to 4 days. You can reheat in the microwave or oven. You can also freeze the baked and cooled crumble. Thaw before heating in the oven for 10-15 minutes until warm throughout. Keep covered while baking as the crumble topping has already been cooked once.
Crumble and crisp are quite similar just with slight differences in their toppings.
A crumble has the base of the flour and can or cannot have additional oats. It gets its name from its crumbly texture.
A crisp however does contain oats and has a crispier top than a crumble.
A cobbler is entirely different and has a biscuit or cake-like topping that’s dropped or spread over the fruit filling.
Video
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📖 Recipe
Mini Apple Crumble
Ingredients
Apple Filling
- 1 (165g) apple
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon powder
Crumble
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 2 ½ tablespoon brown sugar
- 2 tbsp (40g) unsalted butter cold and diced
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon powder
- 2 tablespoon walnuts chopped
- 2 tablespoon rolled oats
To Serve
- 2 scoops vanilla ice cream
- Caramel sauce
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
- Peel and cut the apple into 1.5 cm (1”) cubes.
- For the apple filling, in a small bowl, combine the diced apples with brown sugar, lemon juice and cinnamon powder. Toss well.
- Divide the apple filling into two ramekins. Bang the ramekins or gently flatten the apples with a fork. Big, empty spaces will make the crisp top sink during baking.
- For the crumble topping, in another shallow bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, butter and cinnamon powder. Mix with fingers by crumbling the butter and flour together. Do not make a smooth paste. The mixture should be crumbly.
- When everything is combined, add the walnuts and rolled oats to the flour mixture. Crumble again to incorporate them into the topping. The end result should be like wet sand.
- Divide this crumble into the two ramekins, placing over the apple filling. If required, crumble the mixture between your fingers to get that texture on the top.
- Bake in the middle rack for 20-25 minutes until you see the apple juices oozing through the sides and the crumble top has attained a golden color.
- Remove from the oven and let it rest for 5 minutes.
- Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and drizzle some caramel sauce. Enjoy warm!
Video
Notes
- Each ramekin has volume of around 118ml (4oz) and approximately with diameter 7.5cm (3”) and height 5cm (2”).
- Use fresh, crisp apples for optimum flavour.
- This recipe uses one apple for two servings. If you are making a larger quantity and using more than one apple, I’d suggest using multiple varieties of apple for more depth of flavour. You can combine Granny Smith, Pink Lady, Honeycrisp or Fuji.
- You can skip oats completely too. Balance the quantity with more chopped nuts or flour otherwise the butter will be in excess.
- This recipe can also be scaled up (by adjusting the number of servings in the recipe card) and baked in a baking tray or a Pyrex dish, perfect for serving a crowd.
- I find that the sweetness of the crumble perfectly balances with the sweetness of the ice cream and caramel sauce. If you are skipping the two, you can increase the sugar in the crumble topping. And if you don’t have a particularly sweet tooth, you can also decrease the amount of sugar in the crumble.
- The nutrition value is for 1 apple crumble ramekin without the ice cream and caramel sauce.
Nutrition
PIN IT FOR LATER
Julianna Charlton says
Do you suggest I alter any of the other ingredients if I am omitting the walnuts (due to allergies)?
Qashang says
Hi! No it's totally fine. You can skip the walnuts without changing anything else. 🙂