Our garden has an abundance of fruit at the moment; especially apples, damsons and plums. The plums are beginning to go over and rot on the tree, but that’s OK – butterflies, wasps and other insects have been feasting.
Every time I walk past the tree, on my way to the compost heap or washing line, I grab a couple of the low-hanging fruits. A quick snack on the move! Yesterday, I took a colander out into the garden and picked as many of the just-ripe plums as I could reach. I had in mind to make a spiced plum crumble.
The fruit was given just a hint of flavour with some mixed spice. You could try, instead, a smidgen of cinnamon, clove or ground ginger, or leave the spice out entirely – whatever is your taste preference.
I like a chunky crumble topping that doesn’t go all wet & claggy from the fruit syrup. Simply squeeze handfuls of the mixture in the palm of your hand and gently prise them apart until you get the size of morsel you prefer. Adding oats and hazelnuts to the flour/butter mix helps create the crunchiness and gives a nutty taste. Chopped almonds, Brazil nuts or pecans will work equally well.
It’s such a hearty, comforting, autumnal dessert; served piping hot with a pouring of creamy custard or dollop of cool, thick cream… mmmmmmm!
Save my spiced plum recipe to Pinterest to try later!
Spiced plum crumble
Ingredients
For the plums
- 1 kg/2.2lbs plums; washed halved & de-stoned
- 100 g/3½oz Demerara sugar
- ½ tsp mixed spice
For the crumble topping
- 125 g/4½oz plain flour
- 125 g/4½oz rolled oats
- 50 g/1¾oz hazelnuts; roasted & roughly chopped
- 50 g/1¾oz Demerara sugar
- pinch of salt
- 100 g/3½oz cold butter cubed
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 200ºC/400ºF/Gas mark 6
For the plums
- Put the plums, sugar and mixed spice into a saucepan over a low heat, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. This should take no more than 10 minutes
- Spoon the mixture into a large, oven-proof casserole dish. Set aside while you make the crumble mixture
For the crumble topping
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, oats, hazelnuts, sugar and salt
- Rub in the cold butter until the mixture is lumpy
- Turn out the mixture on to the spiced plums and spread evenly over the top. It's not important to cover the entire surface
- Bake for 45 minutes to an hour - until the topping begins to turn a golden brown colour
Serve with thick pouring cream or hot custard