Thursday 11 September 2008

Mini peach crumbles

I love a good fruit crumble, they were one of the first things I learned to cook, usually with fruit I had picked myself which more often than not meant damsons. I loved making them so much I was making at least 1 a week, I got so good at it I could have a crumble in the oven in less than 10 minutes!I might not make them quite that often any more, but at this time of year when it is getting cooler and darker my thoughts still turn to crumble. It is the perfect pudding for autumn, comfort food at it's best.
They are really easy to make and almost impossible to mess up, plus you can be creative with the filling. I once made a banana and strawberry crumble which was certainly an interesting combination!
I like to play around with the topping too, it's great with nuts for extra crunch and flavour, or oats for a different texture. I sometimes add spices as well, cinnamon is an obvious but delicious choice paired with apples.
This time I kept it simple, using peaches for the filling and a basic recipe of half the weight of butter to flour with sugar added to taste. How sharp the fruit is will affect how much sugar you need. For four people I would normally use 8oz flour, 4oz butter and 20z sugar.
  • Rub the butter into the flour until I have a breadcrumb texture then stir in the sugar
  • Place fruit in a baking dish with a little sugar
  • Pour over the topping and bake at about gas 4/180C/350F until golden
Instead of making one big crumble like I normally would, I made individual crumbles in these ramekins which I've had for ages and never used. I like how it turned out, they look good and everyone got their own individual pudding.

8 comments:

Sylvie said...

Sam, crumbles are one of my favourite desserts, too. You just can't help but feel comforted when digging into one, especially if it comes with custard or ice cream. My favourite one has got to be apple and blackberry.

Amanda said...

I've been dreaming about cobbler/crumbles for 2 weeks now. I'm planning to make a strawberry no-wheat version Saturday. Mmm, experiments! Delicious, delicious experiments.

Sam said...

Sylvie: Apple and blackberry is probably my favourite too.

Amanda: Intriguing, I've never heard of a wheat free crumble before, I'll be very interested to see what you come up with.

Abitofafoodie said...

Crumbles are my favourite too. They are just the best.

I go by the 8/4/2 ratio for the topping too - it is nice and easy to remember which means it is one of the few baked puds I can make without having to check a recipe book!

Alicia Foodycat said...

Mmmmm crumble! Such a crowd-pleaser! I made a plum and ginger crumble the other week, with lots of oats in the topping. So comforting, and sort of healthy too!

Anonymous said...

Hi Sam-

Love crumble, but have never tried it in smaller dishes - will do now, thanks!

Warm crumble with a nice scoop of vanilla ice cream, mmmmm :-)

Alison said...

Hi Sam, We like the blogs. Crumble is also all-time favourite here, tho we use equal quantities of flour, oats, sugar and marg - 1oz of each per person. As Peter is diabetic I add sugar at the end after I've taken his out for sweetner. We've tried pear at the bottom and added cocoa powder in the top - that works well with vanilla ice-cream - especially Eric's from Newtown Linford!
Happy Cooking

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