Growing up in the USA my mother's specialty was pies. She was an average cook generally, seemed to view it all as a chore. But she loved making pies: mince, pumpkin, lemon meringue, coconut custard, cherry (for Washington's Birthday) and most of all apple. Mom would often make apple "crisp" pies that had a crumble topping. Those were my personal favorite.
I enjoy cooking. If I have the time to be organized and methodical, I find it relaxing and almost meditative. It also makes me feel good when I make food that others enjoy eating, especially using produce from my veggie garden (my husband John is the best guinea pig in the world when it comes to testing out new recipes).
So while I'm not like my mother (doesn't every woman say that?) with respect to her dislike of cooking generally, I did inherit her love of and skill in making pies. Making pastry has never been a problem for me.
In the summer and autumn at Struan Farm we have loads of fruit, both from the property itself (raspberries, currents and plums) and from Piopio Orchard (strawberries, blueberries and autumn raspberries). And in NZ apples and pears are always in abundance.
We planted an orchard up by our new house site last year to get the trees going, with heirloom varieties of apples (Peasegood Nonesuch and Monty's Surprise), plums (Black Doris and Elephant Heart), and peach (Golden Queen). I've got a "flatto" peach on order for next year, in the US I think they're called "donut" peaches. And of course the heirloom fig cuttings are growing (yet again) per my recent post.
Thus fruit crumbles have become my default dessert. Everyone seems to like them, with or without yogurt, cream, or ice cream. Blueberry is probably my favorite, with plums picked from our tree a close second and apples third. But I've mixed blueberries and plums, apples and quince and apricots, apples and blueberries, almost forgot peaches--to quote Cole Porter, anything goes! (In a pinch you can even use frozen fruit.) This weekend I found some gorgeous ruby red rhubarb at the Clevedon Farmers Market, so whipped up an apple rhubarb crumble to test out this combination:
It was yummy, I hadn't tried rhubarb before. Below is a rough recipe, it's really hard to mess a crumble up:
Struan Farm Fruit Crumble
pyrex or other ceramic baking dish, inside lightly buttered
fruit of your choice, quantity to fill mounded (it cooks downs), but not so much that it will spill over
toss fruit in about 1/2 cup granulated sugar and a tablespoon or so of flour (amount of sugar varies depending on tartness of fruit and your preference, amount of flour varies depending on how juicy the fruit might be)
To make crumble topping, by hand or in food processor combine:
one cup each of uncooked oats and brown sugar
1/2 cup flour (can be wholegrain)
1/2-3/4 stick of cold butter (2-3 oz) cut up into bits
cinnamon or mixed spice or combination of cinnamon, cloves, ginger (again, just about any of these work to taste)
optional: chopped walnuts
Don't go overboard and pulverize the topping if you use a food processor, you want it to be lumpy-- just get it all roughly combined and then pat on top of the fruit after working it a bit with your hands to incorporate the butter throughout. This quantity of topping should be more than enough for most size dishes, but you can play around with the quantity of topping until you like the result (some of us like more crunchy stuff than others). I've also used canola oil instead of butter, and that works too. I bake it at 350 (F) or 180(C) until the top is browned and fruit is bubbling (a little less than one hour depending on the size of the dish). It can be made in advance and reheated, or served from the oven, but serve warm either way. I often put it in the oven to reheat at a lower temperature as we sit down to dinner, that seems to work reasonably well.
I delivered the blueberry crumble above to my neighbors hot from the oven on Saturday night--they were happy to see me.
p.s. As you can see, this is not a cakey, cobbler-like topping, that's another thing entirely but also good. When I head in that direction I revert to Jamie Oliver's recipe in "Jamie at Home: Orchard Eve's pudding with whisky Jersey cream."
You've inspired me! I've got rhubarb in the garden and apples in the fruit bowl. My family will thank you!
Posted by: Marilyn | 10/19/2010 at 07:15 AM