This is definitely my one of my favourite January crumbles. It’s so pretty when made with the forced winter rhubarb, and you get to combine the rhubarb with the intensity of seasonal blood oranges.
Serves 4
Ingredients
450g/1lb rhubarb
2 blood oranges, peeled and cut into rounds
4 blood oranges, juice only
125g/4oz caster sugar
2 star anise
1 cinnamon stick, broken in half
1 vanilla pod, split lengthways, seeds scraped out
For the topping
50g/2oz unsalted butter
100g/4oz plain flour
50g/2oz demerara sugar
pinch ground cinnamon
50g/2oz flaked almonds
Method
Cut the rhubarb into 5cm/2in pieces and lay them in a 23cm/9in ovenproof dish.
Top with the orange pieces.
Place the orange juice in a saucepan over a medium heat.
Add the sugar, star anise, cinnamon stick and vanilla seeds.
Continue to heat until it becomes syrupy.
Strain, then pour over the rhubarb.
For the topping
Place the butter, flour, sugar and cinnamon in a bowl and use your hands to rub them together until it looks like breadcrumbs.
Add the almonds and spoon the crumble on top of the fruit.
Place in the oven for 25-30 minutes until golden-brown.
Serve with clotted cream or custard and/Vanilla Ice Cream
Apple crumble is a British pudding staple, and deservedly so! There’s nothing that can beat a hearty bowl of hot apple crumble with lashing of hot thick custard to drive away those cold winter blues away. The addition of the spices in this recipe gives it an extra zing and complements the flavour of the apples perfectly
Serves 4-6 (Gluten Free)
Ingredients
For the Apple Base
6 large Bramley apples, peeled and cut into large chunks
50g unsalted butter
5-6 tbps light muscovado sugar, this is to taste (check once the apples are cooked and adjust)
2 star anise, broken up
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Juice of 1 orange (or 60 mls of fresh Orange Juice)
200g unsalted butter, cubed and at room temperature
100g flaked almonds
Method
Preheat the oven to 190C \ 180C fan\Gas 5
In a heavy based pan, sauté the apples in the butter, sugar and star anise and cook for about 8 min, until the apples are caramelised and just tender . Don’t overcook them to a purée as you want the apples to keep their shape.
Carefully stir in the cinnamon and orange juice and cook for a further 2 minutes
Pop the apple mixture into a lightly greased oven proof dish
For the crumble mixture, mix the flour and ginger in a bowl and add the butter a few cubes at a time, rubbing into the flour until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
Stir in the flaked almonds and sprinkle over the apple mixture.
Bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes until the crumble is golden brown and the fruit mixture bubbling.
Serve with hot custard or thick cream, eat and enjoy….
If you can’t get hold of cooking apples and have to use a sweet eating apple, you’ll need to reduce the amount of sugar in the apple mixture by half and the cooking time of that step to 5 mins.
