Create delicious crumbles
by Terry Farris

Spice up your crumbles with nuts, crushed biscuits and rich brown sugars!

If you were asked to make a list of your favourite autumn and winter puddings, crumble would surely come near the top. Maybe it?s the contrast between the crunchy top and the tart fruit underneath; perhaps it?s because it?s so luscious served piping hot with cold cream poured over, or maybe it?s the anticipation of those midnight raids for spoonfuls of chilled leftovers straight from the fridge.

A crumble topping uses basically the same ingredients as pastry ? flour, butter, sugar and sometimes spice ? but is much simpler to make. (During wartime when butter was in short supply, cooks had to use whatever was available.)

It?s possible that the great British crumble is a derivative of Streusel, a sweet topping for tea breads and cakes originating in Austria and Central Europe and almost always containing ground cinnamon. Streusel comes from the German word streusen, to scatter, which is also how we apply our crumbly topping to fruit. Streusel has more sugar in relation to flour than crumble, and the result is a crisper (and naturally sweeter) topping. The Americans also have a version of a fruit-crusted pie called cobbler. The cobbler topping is sometimes used for meat stews as well as fruit.

The original ? and then some
The traditional English crumble starts life as a sweet shortcrust pastry without the liquid. For a basic crumble mix to serve 6, cut 140g butter into 200g plain flour and stir through 75g sugar. Then simply scatter onto prepared fruit in a baking dish. As the fruit cooks, the butter melts and mixes with the flour and sugar to make the crumbly texture that makes it so moreish. Apple crumble is probably the best known and certainly one of the best-loved crumbles, but given our abundance of native autumn fruit (and even some of the exotic imports) there is no limit to the variations and combinations you can make. On the same note, why rely just on flour, butter and sugar for your crown of crumble? Try these variations:

• Whip up a tropical crumble by peeling and slicing several large mangoes and a fresh pineapple (or used canned chunks) and toss into a baking dish. Add the juice from the fresh fruit or several tablespoons if using canned. Make a basic crumble mixture with flour and butter and use vanilla sugar in place of ordinary sugar. Add about 3 heaped tbsp shredded coconut and toss through. Sprinkle over the mango and pineapple and bake at 190C/375F/gas mark 5 until golden.
• Add some roughly chopped hazelnuts to a basic crumble mixture and use rhubarb and raspberries for the fruit.
• Walnut crumble is the perfect topping for peeled, sliced pears, while pecan nuts add something special to a tart plum crumble. Cut the plums in half, remove the stones and place in the dish, cut side up, before sprinkling over the nutty topping.
• For a peach or nectarine crumble, crush some Amaretti biscuits and add a small handful of slivered almonds to the basic mix.
• Try making any of the above nutty versions in individual ramekins or small pudding bowls, and serve each person their own mini crumble.
• Instead of the usual caster or granulated sugar, use demerara or light brown for even more depth of flavour. This works especially well with nut crumbles.
• Use your favourite muesli cereal with bits of dried fruit and honey for a crunchy, chewy crumble. You won?t need as much sugar in this one. Sprinkle over a mixture of apples, oranges and bits of dried apricot.
• Lightly toast some coarsely milled oatmeal, stir through the crumble then fold in a small tub of Greek yoghurt for a taste reminiscent of the Scottish classic cranachan. Use dark brown or muscovado sugar for a richer, mellower flavour. This will go with any of the fruit combinations above.