The Crumble

If you've ever bought a lot of a fruit on sale, went apple or berry picking, participate in a produce box scheme, or were just enamored at the farmer's market, you will at one time or another, have found yourself with too much fruit.

This time, it was apples.  Now that I live in London and farmers' markets are tougher to come by, we participate in a veg box scheme (known in Cali as Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) boxes), which means we get a box of organic produce delivered weekly, with as much of the produce being local as is possible in Britain.

Being Britain, right now that means we're getting a lot of apples since not much else fruit is growing right now.

(Note: if you photograph your food in black dishes, it looks fancy)

As I'd already made a quiche and a tart this week, I'd had enough of crusts. When I asked the SO what else he like for dessert, he suggested a crumble.

A crumble, similar to a cobbler or a crisp, is basically cooked fruit with crumbly goodness on top.  While baking involving yeast or other leavenings takes a bit of science, crumbles don't.

Peel and chop up fruit and season it with sugar and whatever else you like.  Mix together flour, sugar, and butter with your fingers till you have crumbs.  Throw the fruit in a baking dish and toss the crumbs on top.  Bake until the top is brown, not black.

1. Filling
Fruit - apples, pears, berries, apricots, peaches, or a mix, perhaps with some dried fruit tossed in.
Sweetener - sugar (brown or white), honey (go easy on this one), molasses (not very sweet), maple syrup, or a combination.
Spice - cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, nutmeg, clove, pinch of salt, vanilla, a squeeze of lemon or lime juice, tiny bit of finely grated lemon or lime rind, booze (go easy), or any combination that seems tasty to you and you have on hand.

Mix these in a bowl till you have a gloppy mess and put in the bottom of a baking dish.

2. Crumble
Flour - regular white or wheat.  About half a cup or mugful or more depending on the size of baking dish you're using and how much crumble you want.
Butter - roughly the same amount, start with about 2/3s a stick or so, at room temperature (not melted) and chop it into smaller pieces.
Sugar - anywhere from a couple of tablespoons to about equal to the flour, depending on how you like it.
Optional - rolled oats, muesli, or other grains; chopped, flaked, or ground nuts of some sort.

Mix these ingredients with your fingers or a fork until you get a crumbly texture and put on top of the fruit mixture.  If it refuses to crumble, you can break it up into small pieces when you add it on top.

Bake in a medium oven (350ishF) for 30-40 minutes, until brown.  Top with cream or ice cream.

Here's what I went with based on what I had lying around:
Apples, cinnamon, brown sugar, honey, chopped up crystallized ginger for the filling, squeeze of lime juice.
Regular flour, butter, white sugar, oats, ground almonds, chopped walnuts for the top.

(Yum)