Apple and Pear Crumble

pattikay in L.A.'s Note:

This great dessert is from The New Vegetarian Epicure. I've used it with several combinations of fruit - basically whatever I have on hand - and it's always been good. While the apple and pear combination is excellent, I've also had great results with mixed berries (strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, cherries). An easy dessert with ingredients you probably have on hand.

• Total Time: 1 hrs 5 mins
• Prep Time: 20 mins
• Cook Time: 45 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 8

• 4 -5 tart apples
• 4 -5 pears (if using other mixed fruits instead, just be sure to have about 4 lbs total)
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1 dash nutmeg
• 1 dash cinnamon (or any other spice you love!)

Crumble

• 2/3 cup flour
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 5 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons ice water
• 1 cup rolled oats

Directions:

1. Prepare fruit (peel, pit, whatever it takes). If large, cut into 1/4 thick slices.
2. Toss in a bowl with lemon juice, sugar and raisins and a bit of nutmeg and cinnamon (I usually add allspice because I love it).
3. Combine the flour, sugar, salt and spices.
4. Cut in the butter and mix till mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. There should be no big chunks of butter left. (I usually do this with my hands - don't have a food processor).
5. Sprinkle in the ice water, mix till the crumble mixture holds together and forms little clumps.
6. Add the rolled oats and mix. If the mixture seems sticky, add more oats.
7. Spread fruit evenly in a large glass or ceramic baking dish.
8. Scatter topping evenly over the fruit, leaving some of it in larger chunks and some in fine crumbles.
9. Bake the Crumble at 375 for about 40-45 minutes or until the top is crisp and brown and the juice is bubbling up around the edges.
10. Serve it hot or warm, with ice cream, whipped cream, or all by itself.

Reviews

[Chef #570804 Halifax Liz]

First, thanks for a crisp topping that has less butter - just adding the water gets great results. Some reviewer mentioned that there was a lot of juice - if you cut back on sugar that will solve the problem. For us the fruit was too sweet so I only use about 2 tbls of sugar and that is sweet enough.

[Chef #1388972]

I cooked this today with the ingredients I had in the kitchen (a bag of pears which really needed to be used up and a couple of fresh picked apples). I used wholemeal flour for the topping and it came out looking and tasting wonderful. There was a lot of liquid with the fruit when it came out of the oven - probably from the extremely ripe pears - but was delicious with the crusty oatmeal top.

[Chef #1142982]

The raisins made all the difference! Great recipe.