Last updated on December 7th, 2024
You will love this make-ahead apple dessert not only because you can make it ahead of time but because a.) it’s a no-bake dessert, b.)it looks beautiful and c.) it feels kind of healthy to eat.
We’re not going to kid ourselves though, it is a dessert but it feels like the tastiest breakfast you’ve ever had. Woolies used to sell full cream yoghurt with stewed fruit at the bottom and super-thick, creamy yoghurt on top mixed with cinnamon and who knows what else. The point is, they were wickedly delicious and part of me was always thankful they only came in 175ml portions and the other part of me was not grateful at all. Well, these little No-Bake Apple Crumbles taste like that yoghurt. Possibly even better.
With Christmas coming up, I thought these would be a great option for a dessert – Summery in taste although they do look like Autumn. Let’s not be all judgmental on them now though. Plus, entertaining can be a stress at this time of year so I highly recommend making these ahead of time to give you a breather – just leave the mini-apple and crushed brittle decorations for just before serving.
If you follow my SunshineParties website and blog, you’ll note these have been posted there too. I don’t usually like duplicating my content (it’s bad for SEO you know!) but when I was photographing these babies for that blog, and I tasted them (quality checking), I knew I needed to share this one with you guys too. How could I not?Â
Also, let’s take a moment to zoom into these little apples adorning the tops of the desserts. Have you seen anything cuter come out of a tin? I can’t thing of one thing. These are so cute you almost feel bad eating them. Almost.
I have detailed the instructions as much as possible below but if you still need more detail on a step, please just pop me a message. They are simple enough to make and you’ll assemble them all in just under 30 minutes – this recipe makes 4 portions.

No-Bake Apple Crumble
Prep Time: 20 mins
Cook Time: 10 mins
Total Time: 30 mins
Yield: 4 Servings 1x
Description
Simple homemade dessert with apples, biscuits, yoghurt and cream cheese and a few other ingredients in between. A perfect make ahead dessert to save you time when you need it!
Ingredients
Stewed Apples
- 2 large apples – skins off and cut into small squares
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons sugar (brown or white)
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon all spice
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 tin of mini apples (optional – for decoration)
Lemon Cream Cheese & Crumble Layer
- 1 tub of cream cheese (250g / 9 oz) – make sure it is at room temperature.
- 80g (3 oz) of plain yoghurt
- 2 tablespoons of lemon juice
- 2 1/2 tablespoons of icing sugar
- 8–10 Oat biscuits roughly crushed
- 1 peanut/macadamia/almond brittle bar crushed (again optional but it does look good)
Instructions
Stewed Apples Layer:
- In a small-medium pot, add the apple pieces, butter, sugar, cinnamon, all spice and lemon juice and over low heat, allow the apples to stew for 10 minutes or so. Now remove the stewed apples and set aside, leaving the syrup in the pot.
- Drain the mini tinned apples and then place them in the warm leftover syrup in the pot. Leave them there for 5 minutes, on low heat, and make sure to coat them with the syrup so they get a beautiful color to them from the spices. Then, set aside to be used as a decoration for later.
Lemon Cream Cheese Layer:
- Mix the cream cheese, yoghurt, lemon juice and icing sugar together (with an electric beater).
- Now to start assembling and layering! Using a set of 4 pretty glasses, start with an oat biscuit layer, then lemon cream cheese, then stewed cubed apples and then lemon cream cheese again. Remember to divide the ingredients equally amongst 4 glasses.
- Finish off with the crushed nut brittle and a mini apple.
- Serve chilled. Enjoy!
Made these really good, on the second day.
Eating them after they had chilled for about 2 hrs I found the spices flavour a bit overwhelming but 24 hrs later they had mellowed and tasted great and my husband really enjoyed them.
Only one question how big is a tub of cream cheese as in the UK our cream cheese comes in several size containers
The smallest Philadelphia cream cheese is 165 gm yet the recipe only asks for 80 gm of yogurt.
Can you advise.
Ah so good to hear Valerie! Well done! I have updated the recipe to say 250g cream cheese as that is the standard tub size here in SA. Thanks for pointing that out so I could clarify for others too Xx