Monday, September 07, 2009

Windfall crumble

Autumn is here. The Aga has been turned up from its summer setting and on Sunday we had our first pudding of the season. The blustery winds of the past week brought down lots of apples, although there is still a bumper crop waiting to be picked. I made a crumble with some of the windfalls and the last of the raspberries. Comfort food at its best.

Nan has asked for my crumble recipe. As it is a very homely pudding, the quantities and ingredients are not exact. I use about 2 pounds (900g) of whatever fruit I have available: apples or apples mixed with blackberries or blackcurrants; peaches, gooseberries, rhubarb; even bottled or frozen fruit will do.
Prepare the fruit and put in a pudding dish with sugar to taste and about 4 tablespoons water or lemon juice.

For the crumble topping:
8oz (225g) flour
4oz (100g) butter
2oz (50g) demerara sugar

Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar. Sprinkle the mixture over the fruit. For extra crunch, I sprinkle more sugar on the top. I also butter the dish so that the mixture doesn't stick - that makes washing up easy and also means that none of the delicious crumble is wasted.

Cook in a moderate oven for about 40 minutes, until the crumble is golden brown and the fruit is tender. Serve with Devonshire clotted cream, custard or ice-cream.

10 comments:

  1. Yum.

    If you can believe it, I have the very same milk pitcher! A case of great minds not only thinking alike, but purchasing the same liquid dispensing vessels! It's shockingly phenomenal.

    Weather has been cooling off a bit here too. We plunged into the high 80F's (31C) for a couple of hours over the weekend.

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  2. We love crumble and there always has to be a choice of custard or evaporated milk. I'm for 'evap' on mine. And we all like a good, deep crumble.

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  3. Gosh that looks and sounds yummy!

    (for anyone who is having the same glitch posting a comment as I am..when it refuses to process click on preview comment and then it lets you post that way!)

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  4. Could you post the recipe, Maureen?? :<) We would use whipped cream or ice cream probably rather than evap milk or custard. I love what you wrote on Karin's blog about loving the details of American life - that's exactly how I feel about the British life. I'm fascinated by everything.

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  5. Nan
    I'll add the recipe to the post. I like custard with my crumble, mother-in-law likes ice-cream and cream (together!) and my husband likes his crumble neat.

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  6. Ah, crumble, nothing like it, is there? Have just made the first of the season too, with home-grown apples and blackberries. Just tart enough to give it a bite. And, because I love the aroma and flavour, I always add a little cinnamon to the crumble mixture. It was served here with vanilla ice cream (me) and custard (everyone else) and disappeared in a trice. The only depressing aspect of crumble is that it heralds the end of summer and, now that I live somewhere that actually does get some sunshine, this makes me rather sad.

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  7. D, it's difficult to write a recipe for crumble, isn't it? It just sort of happens! whatever you have to hand and then whatever you think will go with it.

    I've booked a little sunshine for your visit - Devon as you don't remember it.

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  8. Crumble tip - if you use softened butter/marge, just squash it into sugar with a fork then add flour - can be a bit quicker than rubbing in and comes out a good texture.
    PS 'Burning Out' now reviewed usual place!
    AliB

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  9. Thanks for the tip, Ali. I frequently get the butter out of the fridge then get distracted (as I do!) and find it is too soft to use. Now I will try your your method.

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