Friday, 21 June 2013

Attempt #50: Best-ever fruit crumble…is in savouring it with family and friends

This attempt was more of an attempt to taste a JO recipe baked by a friend and her hubs. It was their 1st attempt at a JO dessert and while they felt that the crumble topping didn’t seem to be caramelizing as perfect as it should be, it was perfectly delicious to the rest of us. There are many variations of apple crumble but the best-est will be home made with love and served with friends.





A principal fruit of friendship, is the ease and discharge of the fulness and swellings of the heart, which passions of all kinds do cause and induce. We know diseases of stoppings, and suffocations, are the most dangerous in the body; and it is not much otherwise in the mind; you may take sarza to open the liver, steel to open the spleen, flowers of sulphur for the lungs, castoreum for the brain; but no receipt openeth the heart, but a true friend; to whom you may impart griefs, joys, fears, hopes, suspicions, counsels, and whatsoever lieth upon the heart to oppress it, in a kind of civil shrift or confession
-          - Francis Bacon (1561-1626)


Serves 6

Ingredients

·         For the crumble

  • 225 g plain flour
  • 90 g caster sugar
  • 1 pinch salt
  • 1 teaspoon powdered ginger
  • 115 g unsalted butter

·         For the filling

  • 100 g sugar
  • 100 ml water
  • 4 nice ripe pears, peeled, cored and cut into chunks
  • 5 pieces stem ginger in syrup, finely chopped
  • juice and zest of plus extra for serving 1

Method

Preheat your oven to 200ºC/400ºF/gas 6.

Sift the flour into a bowl and add the sugar, salt and ginger.

Cut the cold butter into chunks and rub it into the flour mix with your hands until you get a mixture that looks a bit like fine breadcrumbs. This is the crumble topping.

To make the filling, boil the water and sugar together, then carefully drop in the pear chunks and simmer gently for a couple of minutes.

Add the chopped ginger and the lime zest and juice to the pan and stir. Spoon the mixture into one large ovenproof dish or four small ones.

Sprinkle the crumble topping over the top of the fruit, piling it high in the middle of the dish and leaving space at the edge for the caramel to bubble up.

Bake in the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes until the pears are cooked and bubbling and the crumble is golden on top. Serve with custard or a dollop of crème fraîche with lime zest grated over, if you like.

Tip: This crumble will work well with apples instead, if you prefer.



2 comments:

  1. I hope you haven't given up because you go to 50! I was enjoying reading your attempts. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hello! Thank you for following my blog and your wonderful encouragement. I had to stop the attempts for a while as I was moving home. But I am now kind of settled down and am planning to continue my attempts again :)

    ReplyDelete