One of the many things I love about Lebanon is that when you go and visit someone who has a house in the village with a garden, you always come back with a goody bag, and here I mean fresh fruits and vegetables “min el jnayneh” i.e from the garden.

My father in law, who by the way makes anything he puts his hands on turn green, is a fantastic gardener, and a very generous one as well. No one can visit him and leave empty-handed.

APPLES were my reward for taking the girls to play in his garden last Sunday (I’m a mom of 2 girls).

Granny smith, fuji apples, golden apples, and many more. But my favorites are the Gala apples, not only because of their fairy tale name but also because of their sweet taste.

Hands-on APPLE CRUMBLE

Ingredients

Crumble:

• 3 cups flour
• 2/3 cup brown Sugar
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• Pinch of Salt
• 250 gms or and a half sticks unsalted butter, melted
• 1/4 cup of oats

Filling:

• 450g/ or 5 to 6 apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1cm/in piece
• 50g/2oz unrefined brown sugar
• 2 tbsp lemoncello
• 1 tbsp of ground cinnamon

• 1/4 cup of raisins (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.

2. Grease a rectangular oven dish with a knob of butter

3. Place the apples inside the dish and sprinkle with sugar, cinnamon and lemoncello.

4. Make the crumb topping: In a bowl, combine together flour, sugars, salt and oat. Pour warm melted butter over mixture and rub with your fingers to make large clumps or crumbs.

5. Sprinkle the raisins over the apples then spoon the crumble mixture on top.

6. Bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes until the crumble is browned and the fruit mixture soft.

7. Serve with vanilla ice cream