Festive Flayvas: SPICED APPLE & PEAR CRUMBLE🍐

A warming winter treat, the perfect simple dessert for Christmas!

Welcome back to #Unfiltered Flavours! Its issue #18 and it’s time for the Christmas winter warmers… We’re starting off strong with my Spiced Apple and Pear Crumble. This one is so so simple, yet the flavours are ridiculous. I served this with my spiced brown sugar vanilla custard (That recipe is coming next!) and it really took my love for apple crumble to a whole other level! The spices in the custard, give this crumble a nice Christmas feel.

Plenty of crumble, plenty of custard. The right way!

Now when it comes to pears, make sure you’re picking a pear that’s suitable for cooking. The standard conference pears can be used, but I would suggest buying them whilst they’re still firm. I’m personally using a variety of pears called Bosc pears, they were perfect for this recipe! Asian pears are also great for cooking with too. Cooking pears hold theRE shape really well, whilst still being super tender and don’t get mushy. So I like to keep them chunky in this recipe. I keep the apples small-ish but it’s all down to preference

This is a Bosc pear. If you head down to a good veg and fruit shop, they’ll have these.

Recipe & Method

Filling:

3 large Granny Smith apples

2 large pears ( I used Bosc)

15g light brown sugar

100g caster sugar

100ml apple juice

50ml water

Juice of 1 lemon

1/2 tsp Nutmeg

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Pinch of salt

1 tbsp vanilla bean paste

25g butter

1 tablespoon water + 1.5 tbsp cornstarch

Crumble:

275g plain flour

100g whole oats

Pinch of nutmeg

1/2 tsp cinnamon

120g golden caster sugar

15g light brown sugar

3/4 tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

220g unsalted COLD butter

Method

1. For the filling, peel your apples and pears. You want your pieces of apples to be bite size pieces, if you go too small you’ll get a mushy mess. You can keep the pear pieces chunkier.

2. Place your apples in a pot along with your brown sugar, caster sugar, apple juice, water, lemon, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt, butter and vanilla bean paste.

3. On medium heat, stir until your sugar has dissolved. Then combine your water and cornstarch together before gradually adding to your apples. This should thicken up the sauce, once thickened and in your pears. Let them get coated in the sauce for a minute then remove from the heat immediately.

4. No two apples or pears have the same water content. if you find your sauce hasn’t thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon, then simply mix 1 tsp of cornstarch with 1 tsp of water and gradually add this to your mix until it has thickened.

5. Preheat your oven to 160°c (fan) Allow your mix to cool while you make the crumble.

   

   This is the sort of thickness you’re after.

6. Combine your flour, oats, sugars, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt together.

7. Now add your cold cubed butter to the flour and use your hands to squeeze and break this down. You should be left with a crumble consistency that can be squeezed together but easily break apart with some pressure.

   

   Your crumble topping should look like this, you want the chunky bits.

8. Place your apple mix in a dish and evenly distribute (I’m using a 21cm square dish) then top with a layer of crumble and lightly press, then continue with all of the remaining crumble. Be sure to get the sides, but DO NOT press this down, you only need to press the initial layer lightly.

9. Bake in the middle of your oven for 50 mins. Allow to cool for 10-15 mins before serving, this will ensure your crumble hardens up on top and the sauce will thicken.