Oh, yum! I love crumble - apple, strawberry, rhubarb (do you have rhubarb in Australia?), strawberry and rhubarb - all delish. Bruising shouldn't have a negative effect on the flavor of the apples in a crumble or a pie - you've got to cut the apple up anyway, so you just cut the bruise out at the same time. It does reduce the amount of apple going into the recipe a little, I suppose, but I generally wing that anyway - 2 cups, 3 cups, if the apples fill the dish, it's all good.

My favorite recipe calls for a crumble crust on the bottom of the dish and a simple sugar syrup poured over the fruit before baking, which works very well with rhubarb (which is quite tart), and not quite as well with apples (which are not).

Simple sugar syrups and whipped cream are, I think, among the most magical of the kitchen rituals I do - opaque to clear, liquid to solid - amazing stuff.