The Apple Slice That’s Always a Winner

This apple streusel slice is a beauty. Easy, delicious and made with simple pantry ingredients. Today I'm making the classic version and plus one with some almond milk. I first came across this recipe years ago on a website called Just a Pinch and at the time I was working at an exploratory little operation in the outback and part of my job was to keep the dessert fridge This one quickly became a favourite and I must have made it at least a couple of hundred times now. It's just easy and delicious and it's a straight one-to-one swap with gluten-free flour and this is how I do it. So I'll leave the equivalent measurements in grams in the recipe on the website. So simply into a bowl put two cups of plain flour, all-purpose flour and the recipe doesn't say to sift it but you know that's just a habit. I sift everything. Then into the bowl goes a half a cup of sugar, half a teaspoon of baking powder, half a teaspoon of salt. Give that a little stir and then you'll need a cup of butter Australian which is about 240 grams. This is cold out of the fridge and I've just cut it into small pieces. With this you can use a pastry blender if you like or a viewer suggested that you can actually freeze that bit of butter momentarily and then grate it in which does the same thing or you could gently just pulse it a few times in a food processor but by rubbing the butter in and having little specks of butter in the flour it makes it sort of like a tender short bread crumb and I'm a little bit old-fashioned so I'm just rubbing the butter into the flour with my fingertips and there'll still be lumps of butter left in there which is fine. That's actually what you want. Looks good. A little bit of eggshell. I always think a little bit of eggshell just proves it's homemade. I think Nigella Lawson said that and it's true. So whisk one egg and then pour the egg into the flour mixture and give it a good stir. Now this tin measures 24 centimetres in width and about 34 centimetres in length and I'm just going to line it with some baking paper. I'll spray this away from the camera. Now I take about two thirds of this mixture and reserve a third of it for the top. Spread it out and pat it down. If there's any holes just get a little bit more of the mixture and fill them up. Right now for the filling. So the recipe calls for four cups of peeled thinly sliced apples but I always add like 900 grams a kilo. And you know what? Pears are delicious in this. Many times I've used fresh pears instead and it's so yum. And you can use any variety of apples. These are Granny Smith apples. Now you should slice the apples thinly. This will ensure that they break down and cook. And you'll end up with a big bowl full of apples. And then I add half a cup of sugar, a quarter a cup of flour, one teaspoon of cinnamon powder and a half a teaspoon of nutmeg. And just sort of mix that around. Probably should have had a bigger bowl. And once that's mixed simply put the apples over the top of the shortbread crust. You don't have to do it decoratively. You can if you want. But the thing is after this is cooked and cooled then we make a lovely almond flavoured icing that gets put on top and it makes it look bakery style. Sort of sticks together. I love lots of apples in this. You can use less apples if you wish. Then take the reserved streusel mixture and just sprinkle it evenly on top. Now for the almond meal one. And again I'll leave the equivalent in grams in the recipe on the website. So simply into a bowl place one cup of plain flour, one cup of almond meal which is finely ground blanched almonds, a half a teaspoon of baking powder and a half a teaspoon of salt. Now almonds are quite fatty like they have oil in them. So you don't need as much butter at all. So this is 140 grams of cold diced butter. And again you can use a pastry blender or freeze the butter for a little bit and grate it in. Or just use your fingertips like I'm doing now. And just sort of work that butter into the flour mixture. The reason they say to use your fingertips is they're the coldest part of your hands. And then add one beaten egg. And that's the streusel topping and base. And this pan I'm using today measures 30 centimetres by 23 and a half centimetres. Spray that away from the camera. Then two thirds of this streusel mixture. Reserving one third for the topping. And press that down as best as you can. I'm just taking a little more of the streusel mixture and just filling the corners to make sure the base is nice and solid. Then again I take one, two, three, four, five, six, about 900 grams of peeled apples. And then I just thinly slice them. And I pop these into a bowl. Together with a half a cup of sugar, a quarter of a cup of flour, one teaspoon of cinnamon and a half a teaspoon of nutmeg. Now you can toss that around with a spoon or your fingers. Then take these apples and just lay them on top of the base. And then sprinkle the reserved crumble topping over the top. I was looking for flaked almonds but I thought I had some but I don't. But I'll just have one more look. I did find some natural almonds which I'm just going to put a bit on the top just for a bit of crunch. Why not? I'll put a few more on. And I'll just sprinkle a few almonds over the top. And now I'm going to put them both in the oven. So I bake these for about 60 minutes or even longer. But the recipe says 40 minutes. However I bake it at a lower heat because I want the apples really tender and the top nice and golden brown. So 160 degrees celsius with a fan or 180 degrees celsius without a fan. So these have been in for actually 65 minutes and they're looking beautiful. And that's how you want them. Lovely and brown on top like that. Not too brown but just that lovely golden colour. And if you take a skewer the apples should be really tender which they are. And now the hardest part is waiting for them to cool down because you have to let them cool completely before you put the icing on. Now for the icing which is really easy. I like to sift the icing sugar. That just makes sure there's no lumps in there. So two cups of icing sugar into a bowl. Because I've got two slices I'm making two lots of icing. Then two tablespoons of milk. Two tablespoons of cream or if you live in a country where they sell half and half, four tablespoons of that instead. Now this is what the recipe says to use. If you don't like the flavour of marzipan leave this out. I don't put this in most of the time when I serve it at work because some people just don't like the taste of marzipan almonds. But if you do then add one teaspoon. And if you're unsure you can always just add half a teaspoon. But this is pretty strong stuff. But it does give it that bakery like taste. And you don't have to use all this icing. You can halve it. I actually don't use the whole lot because I feel it's too much icing. However I've made two lots. And this is the way that the recipe suggests that you drizzle it over. Just take a sandwich bag or a freezer bag in my case. Well you know a lot of the times when I don't have a bag I just get a fork and just flick it with a fork and it still looks good. And take some icing and put it into the bag. That's a non-almond meal one. And then all I do is drizzle it back and forth over the slice. And now in the other direction. And I'll do the same for the almond one. Now I have to just wait and allow the glaze to harden before I slice it into slices. But that doesn't take too long. So the icing has set. It's been about 20 minutes and I'm just dying to have a piece. And you know I usually keep this slice in the fridge. It firms up lovely in the fridge. And also it stays fresh in the fridge for like five days. And also believe it or not it freezes really well. And this is super fresh right now. But look at that. That's the almond meal one. Oh beautiful. I just can't resist a little piece when I cut this. The classic one. Look at all those apples in there. And you know if you want to go all out serve it with some whipped cream or a drizzle of cream. And that is so delicious. Thanks Stacey for the recipe and thank you so much for watching. I hope you enjoy this one. It's really really yum. And hopefully I'll see you again soon.