A fruit crumble is a comfortable and straight up pudding. Its simplicity is its magic. Apple Crumble is the classic, but you can use any fruit for a crumble. I've discovered a combination that the home taste panel really like....Apple, Feijoa and Banana Crumble - an idea from Julie Biuso.
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| Autumn brings apples, pears, feijoas and walnuts to my pantry. |
A crumble is a perfect autumn pudding when apples, pears, and feijoas are in plentiful supply and the cooler weather creates an appetite for warming comfort food.
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| I served the crumble with yoghurt and some yummy Rewarewa liquid honey from The Naked Honey Pot Co based in Hawkes Bay. |
There are variations on the kind of crumble topping you can use to best show off your fruit.
As this is a famous English pudding I decided to use a crumble recipe from a chef who is famous for promoting traditional British food, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. His only alteration to the original is an option to replace one-third of
the flour for ground almond meal. Hugh doesn't go for nuts or spices in
his crumble as he feels they can upstage the pure flavour of the fruit.
Apple, Feijoa and Banana Crumble (with traditional crumble topping)
Crumble Ingredients:
180 g plain flour
120 g butter, chilled and cut into cubes
160 g brown sugar or caster sugar ( I cut this back
to 4 Tbsp of brown sugar to reduce sugar)
(alternatively use 120 g of flour and 4 Tbsp of
ground almonds to make the crumble richer and benefit from the added nutrition
of almonds).
Rub/mix the butter
and flour together, either by hand or food processor, until it looks like course breadcrumbs. Then add sugar
and ground almonds. The food processor tends to make a finer more even
crumb.
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| Banana, apple and Feijoa - choose to use more fruit if you want a deep crumble |
Fruit Ingredients:
2 large cooking apples (or 3 Granny Smith apples)
2 - 4 Feijoas - flesh scooped out and cut
up
2 bananas
You don't need to be so exact with measurements -
ideally you fill your baking dish 2/3rd fruit, the other 1/4 to 1/3 being the
topping.
Add the juice of half a lemon and mix well through
fruit to avoid fruit turning brown.
Add 1 Tbsp of sugar (if using tart cookers you may
want a little extra sugar). Remember bananas contain a lot of fruit sugar
and it's good to have a contrast of slightly tart fruit with the sweet
topping.
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The food
processor was used for this crumble topping and makes for
an even and fine textured topping. I gently pat down the topping.
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Now spread over the crumble mix. Hugh
suggests using your fingers to scrunch together the crumble in places to form
small peaks. I didn't do this but if you do then the peaks would be
crunchy adding another layer of texture to the crumble.
Cook for 30-40 minutes at 180. If the crumble
starts to brown then cover with aluminium foil. The fruit should be
bubbling up around the edges of the crumble.
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| Its the kind of pudding that tastes a whole lot better than it looks and is made perfect by serving with ice cream , cream or yoghurt. |
I refer to the crumble as humble because it is a simple dessert with few ingredients. It was also born out of hard times, created during
World War II when rationing meant that pies were not an option. Today we
have plenty of flour and butter but we are short on time, so the humble crumble is once again gaining popularity. A crumble takes
only a few minutes to prepare for a no fuss bake in the oven.
Since the 1940's the crumble recipe has been exported and adopted by cooks in many
countries. I don't know if it is due to our fondness for ANZAC biscuits but in New
Zealand we like to add rolled oats to the crumble crust. The presence of oats somehow makes it OK to eat the leftovers next morning for breakfast.
NZ Apple Crumble - by Alison Holst
You can use a food processor to prepare the crumble topping but if you have a few minutes to spare, want less washing up and a more rustic looking crumble, then try doing it the old fashioned way by "rubbing butter into flour".
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For a
change you can make crumble in indvidual ramekins
and I
served it with yoghurt and half a sliced apple. Thinly sliced
apple
brings the flavours of the apple to life and is a contrast to the cooked
version |
First prepare the crumble topping:
half a cup of flour
half a teaspoon cinnamon
half a teaspoon mixed spice
three quarters cup sugar (I used
brown sugar)
75g butter
half a cup rolled oats
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| Rub the butter first into the flour and any added spices. Then add the sugar - makes the task less gritty that way. |
To "rub butter into flour" first cover the butter pieces with flour and
gently push and spread the butter into the flour between your thumb and
fingers.
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| Then rub the crumb with your fingers interlocked like this until it looks like coarse breadcrumbs |
Then add sugar and rolled oats. Now its time
to prepare the fruit - 4 apples (depending on the size).
Alison
recommends grating the apple skin and all. This is a good idea if you
haven't got a true cooking apple that will break down quickly and fluff up like a souffle when
cooked.  |
| For a change I used individual ramekins for cooking and serving my version of Alison's Apple Crumble. |
I fill them 1/2 to 2/3rds full and then add the crumble topping. Bake at 180C for 30 minutes (45 minutes if using a medium sized ovenware dish)
My Mum used to make a crumble that had fresh bread crumbs included with the flour. I couldn't find any reference to using breadcrumbs in crumbles in my search for recipes. I think this must have been a family recipe handed down from her Scottish grandmother. It would make sense to use the stale bread and not waste it.
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| Peasgood Non Such - a real favourite of mine. One of the largest cooking apples with an extraordinary name. They fluff up beautifully and taste great. |
I remember her crumble as being delicious. I am keen to recreate this humble crumble family recipe probably using Alison's recipe and replacing the oats with bread crumbs. But to make a true recreation I need to source some real cooking apples up here in Auckland.
