This week, I've been craving summer fruit. Or more specifically, baked summer fruit, topped with nutty, buttery crumble and liberally dolloped with Greek yoghurt. I discovered Nigel Slater's recipe for baked peaches through my friend Elizabeth's blog The Backyard Lemon Tree earlier this year and was reminded of it recently when the same recipe was published on Smitten Kitchen at the height of northern hemisphere summer. With stone fruit out of my reach for a good few months yet, I needed a way to satisfy my craving for a juicy, crunchy, throw-together fruit dessert... at the tail end of Sydney winter. Apples and pears I love but I wanted something a bit more punchy in both colour and taste... and found it in rhubarb.
Rhubarb crumble
Recipe adapted from Orangette
If you can restrain yourself, don't serve this straight from the oven. Let it cool just a little first. This gives the crumble topping time to solidify and become well, crumbly.
1 ¼ cups flour
¾ cup brown sugar
1 cup rolled oats
6-7 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces
1 lb rhubarb, cut into ¾-inch pieces
¾ cup sugar
Zest of half an orange
½ tsp ground cinnamon
In a medium bowl, combine 1 cup flour, brown sugar, oats, and butter. Squish together with your hands til the mixture consists of small clumps and all the flour is incorporated. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
In another bowl, combine the rhubarb with the sugar, the remaining ¼ cup flour, orange zest, and cinnamon. Transfer the rhubarb mixture to an ovenproof baking dish, and distribute the oat topping evenly over the rhubarb. Bake for 35 minutes, or until golden and bubbly.
Serve warm, with good-quality vanilla ice cream or Greek yoghurt.
Serves 4-6.
Yum! My mum used to make a strawberry and rhubarb crumble that was fantastic. I might try this with a few Queensland winter strawberries thrown in.
ReplyDeleteGreat recipe Alice, as usual. You inspire me.
ReplyDeleteJudy Anderson