There is a theme emerging here. Cake last Monday, crumble today, must be the cooler autumn weather bringing on all this baking.
I picked up a bunch of rhubarb from our local organic farm along with half a dozen beautiful plums and what else was there to do but make crumble?
Rhubarb is ridiculously easy to grow, well so I am told we haven't ever given it a go but I think I will because it is such a beautiful colour and I love to eat it plus I've just read up on the fact that it is rich in the B vitamins as well as vitamin A and K. For those who don't know already, the leaves on a rhubarb plant are poisonous so do not use them in your crumble.
A word about sweeteners: I used honey and raw sugar in this and I found the crumble topping a bit too sugary. That is because I generally don't eat sugar. I had been using powdered stevia but recently decided I really wasn't totally happy with the taste or texture it gives to cakes and biscuits so I haven't bought any for a while. I keep raw sugar in the cupboard for visitors cups of tea and coffee, that is how I came to include it in this recipe and if I were to do it again I would reduce the amount, but you can do what suits your tastebuds. I am imagining that a crumble made with maple syrup would be pretty delicious. Which sweeteners are you using at the moment? What do you sweeten your crumble with?
Recipe: rhubarb, apple and plum crumble
Ingredients
6 stems of rhubarb chopped into 1.5-2cm pieces
1 medium size granny smith apple, cored and roughly chopped (I leave the peel on)
1 or two plums such as blood plums, remove stone and roughly chop
1 tbsp honey
3/4 cup self-raising flour (I used gluten free)
3/4 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup coconut
100gm butter cubed
2-3 tbsp raw or rapadura sugar
*optional you could add some chopped walnuts, almonds or hazelnuts and some seeds to the crumble
Method
Preheat oven to 180C
Grease an oven proof dish with butter, I used a small rectangular pan you could use a round one or individual ramekins
Place fruit into baking dish
Mix honey through the fruit and make sure the fruit is in an even layer
In a mixing bowl combine flour, oats, coconut and sugar
Rub butter into flour mixture until the butter cubes are completely rubbed in
Scatter crumble mixture evenly over the top of the fruit
Bake for 40-45 minutes until fruit is cooked and top is golden brown
Serve with custard or ice cream, or natural unsweetened yoghurt as pictured above.
Enjoy and hide the rest from your husband like I had to!
What is your favorite crumble combo? Pear and ginger is next on my ideas list.
What about rapadura? Do you think it would work in place of raw sugar? It's still sugar of course...but at least it has some good nutrients. I always have rapadura on hand by the truck load for my water kefir. As for sweetening foods....well my kids have a little drizzle of Maple syrup on their pancakes and in their Greek yoghurt. I use local honey for sweetening things too. I have powdered stevia in the pantry but I hardly think to use it.
ReplyDeleteHi Michelle, rapadura is hard to find in my neighborhood I have bought it before on trips to Melbourne but yes you are right it is still sugar I would feel better to use that than white sugar though, not that I use white sugar. Water kefir? I'm intrigued. Do you just replace the milk with water? Local honey and maple syrup are my preferences too. Thanks for your input x
DeleteWater kefir is delicious and very beneficial for balancing gut bacteria (just like the milk version). The grains feed off the sugar water so the end result isn't sugary or even sweet. It's a bit like drinking soft drink (although I can never get ours as fizzy) and can be flavoured anyway that takes your fancy. We mostly flavour ours with ginger...so it's a bit like ginger beer. My kids love it and I encourage them to have a glass at least once a day. My grains were never in milk...but I believe it's possible to interchange them.
DeletePS I buy rapadura online - Santos wholefoods sells it, plus heaps of other online wholefood stores. Buying it in bulk works out much cheaper. Honest to Goodness is another company worth checking out.
There's always been raw sugar and raw honey in my cupboard, but lately there's a lot more rapadura in there too which I'm using more and more. Having said that, I hardly make any cake nowadays so I don't worry too much if I'm using raw or rapadura. We love maple syrup in homemade granola and for drizzling over pancakes, and I recently tried coconut nectar which had a lovely caramel flavour. My favourite sweetener for the boys would definitely be the local raw honey I get from our co-op. They have it with their yogurt and kefir most evenings. It's beautiful. x
ReplyDeleteThanks Vanessa for sharing your sweet secrets :) You say you don't bake much cake nowadays...I'm curious have you gone off cake?! If so we need to talk! I like the sound of yoghurt, kefir and local honey x
DeleteJust discovered your lovely space here.
ReplyDeleteThis crumble sounds delicious.
You should get hold of a couple of rhubarb crowns for the garden.
Ours is going well and it's been transplanted 4 times over the past 5 years. They're pretty hardy and it's great to be able to pick a few stalks as needed.
x