This week has been… tiring.
But alas! I’m still here, still baking, still writing.
The reason that I’m still here, slumped in front of my computer instead of the TV, is because I wanted to bring you out of winter and into spring.
Yes everybody, ta da, its spring! I have been craving the sun and all its glorious plump fruit for a long time now. Most of you probably know that I love winter. I have dedicated many a paragraph to my obsession with the sound of rain on the window and cuddling up in a wooly blanket. However, the inevitable has happened. Winter has hogged the limelight for too long and I am ready for spring (and twirling dresses.)
I can’t wait to churn out batches of silky ice cream, bake mounds of meringue and sneakily eat berries off of a strangers raspberry bush as I wonder past their house. It’s all about baking with what’s ripe and flourishing right in front of you, minimal effort needed.
That’s why I chose to bring you to a dessert that melds two seasons together. When I think of a crumble; it conjures up images of freezing winter days and me, enveloped around a massive bowl of steaming dessert; trying to inhale the warmth.
But when you change the typical apple filling to strawberries, peaches and ginger, it suddenly seems like a little bowl of sunshine. A bowl packed full of strong flavours, crunchy nutty topping and glorious ripe peaches.
Ingredients – makes one large crumble, serves 8 (or you, eight times!)
- 4 ripe peaches
- 500g strawberries, after being hulled and quartered
- 3 tbsp. caster sugar
- 3 pieces of stem ginger
- 50g skinned hazelnuts
- 140g flour
- 100g demerara sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 50g oats
- 100g butter, cubed and cold
- 55g flaked almonds
Method
Pre-heat your oven to 200 degrees C. Place the hazelnuts into a small baking tray and place in the oven for 5-10 minutes until browned and toasted. Remove from the oven and let cool.
De-stone the peaches and cut into bite size pieces. Roughly chop the stem ginger into small pieces. Place the peaches, strawberries, 3 tbsp. sugar and stem ginger into a large frying pan. Turn the heat to high and cook until the fruit begins to soften, stirring occasionally. You don’t want the fruit to be mushy, so keep and eye on it. When the fruit has softened, pour it into your crumble dish in one even layer and leave to cool.
For the crumble topping place the flour, demerara sugar, ground ginger and ground cinnamon into a medium sized bowl. Add in your cubed butter and begin to rub this into the flour mix using your fingers until it resembles bread crumbs. Now stir through the flaked almonds and oats. Take your hazelnuts and roughly chop them. Add these into the crumble topping. Using your hands, clump the mix together so that it sticks together and forms bigger lumps. Sprinkle this over the top of your cooked fruit in one even layer.
Place the crumble into the oven for 15-20 minutes until the crumble topping is golden brown.
Serve with double cream or ice cream.
