As our new magazine, The Rub Down, launched this month, we started our search to find the best Spabakers out there! Our favourite recipes will feature here on The Hot Tub, and to get the ball rolling, we loved Zoe Creasey’s take on the classic apple crumble! Do you have a favourite homespun recipe? Tweet the name and a pic to @spabreaks #Spabaker!

Ingredients (serves 6-8 people):

For the filling:

– Six large cooking apples (peeled and roughly chopped)
– Vanilla sugar
– Two cans of carnation caramel

For the crumble topping:

– 150g Plain flour
– 50g Butter (at room temperature)
– 75g Soft brown sugar (you can use normal white granulated sugar if you don’t have access to brown sugar)

Method:

– Pre-heat the oven to 180°C / 350°F / Gas Mark 4
– Place the flour in a large mixing bowl and gently rub in the butter using your fingertips
– When it looks crumbly and the fat has been rubbed in evenly, stir in the sugar.
– In a frying pan, heat a large knob of butter until melted.
– Add your cooking apples to the pan.
– Add a good coating of vanilla sugar.
– Cook the apples until they are soft and golden in colour (you need them to be nearly the consistency of apple sauce, but chunkier).
– Pour the apple mixture into a deep ovenproof dish
– Pour over the cans of carnation caramel making sure all the apples have a good coating.
– Add the crumble mix and make sure the crumble is evenly placed all over the apples
– Add another decent sprinkling of vanilla sugar.
– Bake in the oven for approx half an hour until the crumble is golden brown and your whole house smells of vanilla!
– Leave to cool and then serve … ideally with vanilla custard!