Crumble, traditionally apple or
rhubarb. Why? We have an abundance of fruit available to us, why not
experiment?
Particularly in the UK, our
supermarkets seem to be engaging in a price war on fruit and vegetables, under
the ever-increasing pressures to offer healthier food at lower prices. Well,
I'm all for being healthy and getting my five-a-day... But I also like the fact
I can use fresh fruit in my cooking, whether that be healthy or not!
Summer desserts vary, but the likes of
soft fruits, meringues and cream, ice creams and sorbets, cheesecakes, and
tropical fruits are a common occurrence. Crumble in my opinion is generally
associated as a more autumnal dish. However, I've decided to revamp this
classic, using some tropical fruits and summer flavours. A lot of the
ingredients are on offer in the big supermarkets now, so the cost should come
in cheap too. My recipe uses coconut powder, see 'tips, tricks and hints'
at the bottom of the page.
Ingredients
For the filling
- 1tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 small, ripe pineapple, cored, peeled, diced in small chunks
- 8 ripe apricots, stone removed, diced in small chunks
- 1 small, ripe mango, flesh removed, diced in small chunks
For the topping
- 90g plain flour
- 75g unsalted butter
- 60g rolled oats
- 100g dark muscovado sugar
- 1 tbsp coconut powder
Method
- Preheat the oven to 200c/180 fan/Gas 6
For the filling
- Melt the butter in a frying pan, over a medium heat.
- Once the butter has melted, add the apricots and leave for 5
minutes.
- Add the pineapple and mango, stir and lower the heat.
- Leave for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
For the topping
- Add all the ingredients to a food processor and blitz until well
combined.
- Alternatively, rub the flour and butter together until the mixture
resembles bread crumbs. Add the oats, sugar and coconut powder and combine
well.
To assemble
- Transfer the contents of the frying pan, into a deep, ovenproof dish.
- Sprinkle the topping over the fruit - don't press down the
mixture!
- Place in the oven for 20-25 minutes, or until the top is golden
brown.
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| L-R Fruit before and after cooking Crumble before and after cooking |
Tips, Tricks and Hints
- If your fruit mixture appears a little dry, you can either add a
little water, or a couple of tablespoons of tropical fruit juice.
- Tesco, appears to be the cheapest now for the fruit; a medium pineapple, 'giant' mango and pack of apricots totally £2.79! (prices vary on certain locations)
- Coconut powder is one of my favourite new ingredients! In effect you just add water and it creates coconut milk. Used as a powder in baking, it helps to add a coconut flavour, without changing the texture, or worry about the coconut burning. It's also great to add to cream or ice cream for a rich coconut flavour.
- You can freeze the cooked fruit, use it for pies, to serve with
yoghurt or granola, or more crumble!
- You can also swap the fruit around if need be, apricots will swap
for peaches or nectarines for example - this is a great way of using up
fruit.