Cherry Crumble

Hope the summer is finding you happy, eating loads of ice-cream, and planning, or maybe enjoying a good summer break. Or returning from one, and planning for the next one?. Isn't planning for vacation as enjoyable as the vacation itself? I love dreaming about and looking forward to a nice break every few months - it's just what sometimes keeps me sane! Come back from one, and immediately look at the calender for the next available opportunity for another mini- break :-)

This past weekend we had planned for a weekend break to Colmar, but it didn't happen thanks to the rainy Saturday. Instead, we just headed for the very colourful farmer's market later in the day, and loaded up on cherries, blueberries, melons and honey mangoes and ...

I used up most of the cherries in a delicious crumble. Fruit crumble really is such an easy, quick to put together dessert, so versatile, and you can rarely go wrong with it. This cherry crumble is more about the fresh fruit rather than the butter and cream. Just the perfect dessert for a beautiful summer evening.

INGREDIENTS (per ramekin)

• 7-8 pitted cherries

For the streusel topping/crumble

• 2 tablespoons rolled oats
• 1 tablespoon of all purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons slivered/chopped almonds
• 1 tablespoon demerara or turbinado sugar. Light brown sugar would also be fine.
• a pinch of salt
• a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
• a tablespoon of cold butter
• softened butter for greasing the cups

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Generously butter each ramekin
2. Preheat the oven to 400F
3. throw in the pitted cherries in the ramekin
4. In a bowl, add in all the ingredients for the crumble except butter. Mix them slightly with your hands
5. Now add in the cold butter and combine with the dry ingredients with your fingers. The crumble should look and feel like ..well..a crumble..or coarse bread crumbs.
6. Place this crumb mixture on top of the fruit in each ramekin
7. Bake for about 25 minutes

Some of the characteristics and serving suggestions

• I love desserts, but I don't like them to be too sweet. When it comes to a crumble, made with summer fruits, eaten on a hot day, I much prefer the dish to be light and fruity, slightly tart served with a good quality vanilla bean ice-cream, rather than a rich and heavy cobbler-esque dessert.
• If you are making this dish on a cold winter day, eating it warm straight out of the oven, with a dollop of whipped cream would be perfect.
• But on a hot and sunny beautiful summer's say - one of the few that we in Zurich are blessed with this season, I say reduce the sugar, chill the crumble and eat with a scoop of ice cream. Or better, have it for breakfast the next day - that's what we did, and loved it :)

The slight tartness and juiciness of the cherries, the crumbly texture of the streusel topping, and the smoothness and coolness of the ice-cream - now that is a beautiful and refreshing dish that is very satisfying as well!

Share