Have you noticed that plums are still plentiful? They seem to linger through Autumn inviting you to think of ways to enjoy their wonderful flavour.
During the past few weeks I’ve made quite a few favourite recipes that focus on plums -
A plum and onion relish that keeps for a few weeks in the fridge - so far I’ve served it with a roast loin of pork and put it on roast pork sandwiches for a bushwalk we did last weekend. It’s a perfect sweet/sour sensation with any meat.
I’ve also made a plum galette and after an Asian-inspired dinner for friends I served poached plums, with faint hints of cinnamon and star-anise in the syrup, and vanilla ice-cream.
But my all time favourite has to be plum crumble. It’s rustic, (just look at my image!) the deep vermilion colour of the juice is amazing and the taste has that ‘just right’ rating. Above all, this easy crumble recipe is made from basic ingredients that are nearly always on hand. It makes me feel so resourceful, relieved and relaxed when I can make something straight out of the pantry!
There’s plenty of time for apple crumble later - for now, just get in before plums disappear till next year and make this crumble tonight.
Plum Crumble
Ingredients
- I kg black plums - they are best when just starting to feel ripe, not too hard and not too soft
- Say about 4-6 Tablespoons of sugar - depending on the plums and how sweet you like them
- 250g plain flour
- 150 g butter - cold and cut into small cubes
- 90g sugar
- !/2 cup almonds (or hazelnuts, walnuts or pecans) - about half finely ground and half roughly chopped
Method
- Preheat oven to 180C
- Wash plums really well, cut in half and take out seeds
- Place plum halves in a baking dish with the cut side facing up
- Sprinkle with sugar
- (At this stage you can start to pre-bake the plums whilst making the crumble topping just to give them a little start)
- Put the flour in a bowl, add the diced butter and rub into the flour with your fingertips till you have a rough mixture - I like to see knobbly bits of butter
- Add sugar to the flour along with the nut of your choice and mix till just combined
- Spread the crumble over the plums and place the baking dish on an oven tray (to catch any juice that may spill during cooking)
- Bake for about 30 minutes until the crumble is golden brown and the plum juices are bubbling around the edge
Tip
- Quantities are fairly flexible depending on how many you’re serving and how sweet you want it to be - the more crumbles you make the more you’ll get a ‘feel’ for the taste you like best
- Different sugars can be used depending in what you might have nearby or want to try - demerara sugar is a good choice
- Nigella Lawson stipulates SR flour in her great book How to be a Domestic Goddess so try that too instead of plain flour
- More butter can be used if you like the crumble really ’short’
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