Recipes

Chosen from Recipes to Know by Heart by Xanthe Clay, she writes "A crumble should be a generous affair, bubbling and burning round the edges with toffee-sweet juices from the fruit that meld into the topping. And that topping, likewise, will have dissolved a little into the fruit underneath, thickening the juices and adding just a hint of uncooked biscuit dough to make a flavour that recalls childhood."

The Texture
A good crumble should be crumbly with a sweet gravelly topping just covering hot tangy fruit. To achieve this you are going to have to get your hands dirty, or at least deliciously buttery and sugary, since the texture needs an unevenness that can never be achieved in a machine. A food processor will reduce the flour, butter and sugar to sand, which sits heavily on the fruit like a layer of shortbread. And never, ever pat the crumble mixture down. It should sit lightly where it falls.

The Proportions of Ingredients
The basic ingredients are fat, sugar and flour but the proportions are less fixed than for a cake or pastry. Some cooks use equal quantities of butter, flour and sugar to make a very crisp crumble, good for sprinkling over cakes as a streusel topping. I prefer the softer, powdery quality of 2:1 flour and butter mix. Cold butter gives the best lumpy texture.

Stirring in the Sugar
The sugar should be stirred in at the end, not worked into the butter at the start, which gives a too homogenous biscuit-like texture. Whtie sugar is fine, but brown has a richer flavour. Darkest brown of all, muscovado sugar imparts a smoky, autumnal flavour to apple and blackberry. My favourite is demerara, which has a pleasantly gritty crumble texture and a light honey flavour.

The Fruit
Just about any fruit you like will work in a crumble, provided it is cooked. Defrosted fruit works well in general. Don't overwhelm the fruit with too much crumble. The hero of the dish is the fruit with the crumble adding texture and sweetness. Don't over-sweeten the fruit; the crumble is sweet and you can always serve it with cie cream or custard instead of cream for more sugar.

To Cook and Sweeten the Fruit or Not?
The crumble will have 40 minutes in the oven, which may well be enough to cook the fruit through. Nonetheless, it's safer to precook anything that is inedible raw, such as underripe pears or peaches (or try rhubarb). The texture is important, as is intensity of flavour. Berries and currants generally reduce to a mush, so something chunky, such as nectarines, will make for a more gutsy and gentler-tasting pud.

Serves 4-6

    100g butter
    225g plain flour
    100g caster sugar
    450-900g ripe fruit, raw or lightly cooked

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. For the crumble topping, rub the butter and flour together until the mixture resembles coarse fresh breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar.

Spread the fruit in a baking dish. Cover the fruit thickly with the crumble mixture.

Bake the crumble in the oven for about 40 minutes, until light gold and crisp on top. Serve with cream, custard or ice cream.