Picture a crunchy golden crust over a syrupy confection of apples and berries—that’s an apple crumble. Take a piping hot crumble out of the oven, top it off with some ice cream, and you’ve got heaven on a plate.

I almost always include berries in my apple crumble, but you could include chunks of peach, pear or any other fruit you’ve got on hand. The more the merrier, as far as I’m concerned. Just make sure the fruit is nice and ripe. In fact, a crumble is a good way to use up fruit that is close to becoming overripe.

Apple Crumble

½ stick unsalted butter (keep it cold)

½ cup all-purpose flour (NOT packed)

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar (packed—or you can use 1/2 cup of brown sugar and eliminate the white sugar altogether)

6 cups of apples (peeled and sliced)

1 cup berries (blueberries, raspberries, you name it)

about 1/3 cup orange juice (or apple cider)

a big pinch of cornstarch

a fistful of sugar (forgive my anecdotal measurements here, but I always just eyeball it)

Preheat oven to 375 (or a little higher, if you like a crunchier crust). Take the cold butter, cut it up and throw it in the food processor with the flour and sugars. Run the blade a few times, until it starts to look like Grape-Nuts or bread crumbs. Set aside. In a big bowl, toss together the sliced apples and berries (or other fruit). Whisk together the orange juice, cornstarch and sugar (you'll want to have it all in suspension—no lumps. If it’s lumpy, start over and use less cornstarch). Pour it over the fruit, mixing it up so it's all moistened. Dump the sticky fruit mixture into the baking dish of your choice (I like a high-sided ceramic pie plate). Cover with the flour/butter/sugar stuff, and bake until it looks all golden-crusted and awesome. Could be 30 minutes, could be 50—depends on what sort of baking dish you use, the temp you set your oven at, and how pale or dark you want your crust to be. Enjoy!