Rhubarb, Pear & Apple Crumble
The last week has been such a blur of activity, I didn’t find time to publish this post that’s been sitting, half written, in my drafts since the middle of last week. It was a weird week for me. Although I’ve been on my summer holidays for a while now, this week was the first week that I was really free & alone long enough to have to amuse myself. So I did. Some of that time was dedicated to making this delicious Rhubarb, Pear & Apple Crumble, just because. What better reason is there?
Overall, my week was good. I caught up with some great friends over a few glasses of wine, I ate all the baked goods my body could handle, I began training as a possible full-timer at work for the rest of the summer, I regretted the amount of wine I had the night before work, I ate one too many parma ham, mozzarella, pesto & sun-dried tomato sandwiches, I caught up on my sleep, I watched all the episodes of Friends that I possibly could, I bonded with my co-workers, I perfected the art of making a good cappuccino, I relaxed, & generally did what I wanted to do. It was lovely. Now I have plans for every foreseeable Friday night & I’m even more comfortable at work than I was before, all because I shook things up a little bit & made more of an effort. Win win, huh?
The idea behind this crumble is much the same as my week last week. I was bored with the usual Apple & Rhubarb Crumble, so I decided to shake things up. Hi there, juicy pears, let’s be friends. They agreed & jumped right in the crumble with the rhubarb & apple. It’s a good thing I have friendly fruit that get along so well.
Besides the inclusion of the pears, this crumble is still more adventurous than your average crumble. Instead of simmering the fruit over the hob with a generous helping of sugar, the fruit in this crumble is mixed with butter, maple syrup & cinnamon & then baked in the oven until soft. Like I said, I got bored.
The maple syrup mix makes it exciting & different & therefore automatically better. & let’s not forget the pears thrown in. & the surprise almonds that I threw into the crumble for a bit of a change from the regular hazelnuts or pecans. There has never before been a more exciting crumble. I had mine topped with ice-cream, Häagen-Dazs Cookies & Cream to be exact. You could have it by itself if you wanted to, but I don’t get why you’d want to do that. I will judge you if you decide not to have ice-cream. Just sayin’.
Serves 4-6
Ingredients
- 3 apples, cored & cut into cubes
- 2 pears, cored & cut into cubes
- 1 ½ cup of rhubarb, cut into cubes
- ½ cup maple syrup
- 30g butter
- 1 ½ tsp cinnmon
- 2/3 plain flour
- 2/3 ground almonds
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup flaked almonds
- 60g butter, softened
Method
- Preheat oven to 180°C & lightly grease an ovenproof dish large enough to hold everything.
- Combine the fruit in a large bowl & set aside.
- Over a moderate heat, melt the butter & maple syrup together. Stir in the cinnamon & pour over the fruit. Mix well.
- Put the fruit mixture into the prepared dish & bake for 15 minutes, or until the fruit is tender & the syrup is bubbling.
- While the fruit is in the oven, make the topping. Combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl with your fingers until the mix resembles coarse breadcrumbs.
- When the fruit is tender, remove from the oven & sprinkle over the crumble topping. Return to the oven for 20 minutes, or until golden brown on top.
- Serve warm with ice-cream.