Cuisine – Luscious autumn afters

Just hours into the first day of autumn, I swear the temperature had dropped a few degrees already. Although this was much to my dismay at the time, the change in season at least gives me a good excuse to get back into my most treasured desserts – warm ones! I have a surplus of fruit on my property at the moment and crumbles are the perfect way to get rid of it. The thing about a crumble is you can make them with almost any fruit. I have used passionfruit, oranges, peaches, nectarines, figs, plums, and even the odd mango. The trick is to bake with a mixture of fruits. So feel free to use the recipe below as a base to play around with some interesting fruit combinations. Just make sure you serve your crumble hot, and cool it off with something cold and runny. My mouth is salivating at the thought!

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Easy-peasy perfect nutty crumble

3 medium-sized pears
3 medium-sized apples – preferably Royal Gala
1 cup raspberries, blueberries or blackberries
1 ¼ cup raw sugar
2 medium-sized soft lemons
¾ cup raw whole almonds
½ cup rolled oats
1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ cup desiccated coconut
¾ cup plain flour
50g butter, well chilled

Before you start the prep work, preheat your oven on bake at 180 degrees.

Peel and de-seed your pears and apples, chop them into small chunks and place in a large mixing bowl. Wash your berries and pop them in the bowl with the apples and pears. Finely grate the zest of the two lemons and put aside. Squeeze the juice from both lemons and pour over your fruit – be sure to discard all the pips! Add 1/2 cup of the raw sugar along with half a teaspoon of the cinnamon. Gently mix everything together and place in a medium-sized baking dish of your choice – there is no need to grease the dish.

Now we can move on to the topping that makes this crumble so delectably scrumptious. In a large clean mixing bowl, place your lemon zest, rolled oats, coconut, flour, 3/4 cup of raw sugar, and the rest of your cinnamon. Finely chop your almonds and add these in to the mix. Break the butter in to pieces and throw it in with everything else. Now you need to get your hands dirty. Rub all the ingredients in together with your fingers until they resemble large bread crumbs, then evenly pour the topping over your fruit in the baking dish. Place in the centre of the oven and bake for 30 to 45 minutes. The crumble is cooked to perfection when the topping is lightly browned and you can see fruit juice bubbling up the sides of the dish. Serve immediately in dessert bowls, and top with fresh cream, berry yoghurt or warm custard.