Tomislav's Apple Crumble

I always enjoy a challenge. Especially when it involves popping candy. As soon as I saw Helen's review of Tomislav, the apple crumble dessert with macadamia sponge and clotted cream ice cream immediately caught my eye. I have a special place in my heart for crumbles. And this was a crumble with popping candy! Unfortunately I've been too busy/poor/sick to eat out much recently, but when George from Wasamedia offered to share the recipe for this amazing dessert so that I try and recreate it at home, I couldn't say no.

I love love love the idea of mixing popping candy into an apple crumble. There's always such a sense of whimsy when popping candy is involved. A fun twist on a traditional dessert like this is just what you would expect from chef Tomislav Martinovic, whose impressive experience includes previously working with Heston Blumenthal. The apple crumble dessert served at the restaurant keeps the popping candy well hidden within the crumble, but unfortunately for me the only popping candy I could get my hands was the strawberry flavoured kind, which was bright pink and a little hard to conceal.

The recipe I was given provided some interesting hurdles to overcome, since the instructions included the use of a Thermomix and a Pacojet. Errr...yeah unfortunately I don't have either of those stashed away in my kitchen cupboards (I swear I would kill for either of them). And I was allergic to the macadamia sponge. So a fair bit of improvisation was involved, and I can pretty much guarantee my homemade version was nowhere near as good as the real one would be. But it was worth a shot!

I have to admit I was a little lazy. I don't have an ice cream maker, nor did I have the energy to make it, so the ice cream in my photos is just some plain store-bought French vanilla ice cream. But I will include the recipe for the ice cream in case you feel like attempting it. I replaced the macadamias in the sponge cake recipe with pine nuts, and processed them with my food processor to get a fine meal. The sponge went pretty flat thanks to my stupid temperamental oven (same reason I had so many dramas when I was making madeleines recently), but it still tasted really delicious. My favourite part is definitely the crumble mixture with the popping candy, it's so buttery, crunchy and crackling! I was happy to eat the leftover curmble mixture just with some vanilla ice cream, it was so good!

Tomislav's Apple Crumble with Macadamia Sponge, Spiced Caramel Sauce & Clotted Cream Ice Cream
(serves approx 4, adapted from an original recipe by Tomislav Martinovic)
For the Clotted Cream Ice Cream:
250ml whole milk
250ml single cream
40g caster sugar
75g egg yolks
4g milk powder
2 vanilla pods

Combine milk, sugar cream and milk powder and bring to the boil. Let to infuse for 30 minutes. Add to the yolks and pass through a chinois or fine sieve Let mixture mature for 24hours. Churn in ice cream maker according to manufacturers instructions.

For the Crumble Mix:
60g butter, cold
30g sugar
60g almond meal
30g flour
Popping candy (I used Cottees Star Dust from the ice cream topping section of my supermarket)

Rub together in a bowl until mixed and crumbly. Spread out on a lined baking sheet and bake in an 170 degrees C oven until golden brown. Cool completely and store in the fridge until ready to serve.

For the Sponge:
75g macadamia nuts (I replaced these with pine nuts)
100g icing sugar
250g (yes, grams) pouring cream
100g plain flour

30g egg whites, room temp
10g sugar

Pulse nuts in a food processor until it forms a fine meal. Add icing sugar and pulse a few more times to combine. (Original recipe calls for you to process nuts and regular sugar in Thermomix) Sift nut mixture with plain flour. Using an electric mixture, whip cream to stiff peaks. Also with an electric mixer, beat eggs whites to soft peaks then gradually add sugar and continue to beat until egg whites are very stiff, white and glossy. Working very quickly, fold dry mixture into whipped cream until nearly combined, then add egg whites and fold again. Pour mixture into a lined 20cm round springform tin with a removable base. Bake at 180 degrees C for 25-30 minutes or until the cake is cooked through and golden on top. Avoid opening the oven while it is baking as this will make the cake collapse.

For the spiced apples:
125g sugar

250ml white wine
65g sugar
2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and roughly chopped into slices
1 vanilla bean or 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
2 cinnamon quills
1/2 tbsp cloves

With the 125g of sugar make a fairly dark caramel by heating the sugar on medium high heat in a medium saucepan. Then add all other ingredients, including the apples, bring it to the boil and set aside to infuse for a further 30 mins. Strain off all ingredients and poach chopped apples (on low–medium heat) till just soft. (I admit I was lazy and just continued to poach the apples in the caramel sauce and then strained them out when they were ready).

When you are ready to serve:
Portion the macadamia sponge and heat in the oven at 180 degrees for
one minute. Heat the apples in a saucepan over medium heat until sauce reduces to a caramel (takes approximately 3-4 mins, I found my mixture a little too sour cos of the wine I used so I added more sugar) Add equal quantities of popping candy in a bowl with the crumble mix (one tablespoon each). Place the sponge on a plate, put apples & sauce on top, then crumble mix and ice cream on the side. Serve immediately.

I'm the first person to admit that one-plate desserts with multiple elements is definitely not my forte, I prefer to leave this to those who are more talented. However, even with my mishaps and lazy shortcuts I think I came up with a pretty good tribute to the original dish. So give it a go if you're interested and are not as lucky as us Sydney-siders who can go try the real thing. It is surprisingly less time consuming to make than it looks, but I think that next time I will save my energy and go try it in the restaurant instead ;)