Pear and plum crumble

So all I had in the fridge was a handful of pears and 5 sour plums, and my cake tins were all at school. What to make for staff morning tea? I decided a crumble was the only way to go, and how appropriate it turned out to be for a deliciously cool and blustery autumnal day!

The recipe here is a cross between my usual crumble and that of the lovely Not Quite Nigella, who had happened to make and blog about a crumble made from my less-than-typical fruit combo of pear and plum. It turned out to be quite scrummy yet happily quite healthy and low-GI too!

1. Reduce 200ml water, 1 tbsp raw (low-GI) sugar and a broken stick of cinnamon in a saucepan until a light syrup.
2. Take 4 Packham pears; core and chop into sixths. Do the same with an equal weight of plums and add them all to the pan. Cover and simmer very gently for 10-15 minutes or until fruit is softened but still holds its shape.
3. Fill a 15 x 20 cm dish with the fruit, using as little juice as possible (it will be quite runny again). Slowly keep reducing the juice on the stove while you make the crumble.
4. Mix together 1 scant cup of wholemeal spelt flour, 75g butter or margarine (I used Nuttelex), 1 tsp baking powder and 1 tbsp of raw sugar. Work into a crumbly mixture then add 3 tbsp slivered almonds/pine nuts.
5. Remove remaining juice from the stove, which should now be a bit more syrupy. Add the juice and rind of 1/2 a lemon, stir then pour over the fruit.
6. Top with crumble mixture and bake slowly (150C) for an hour or until nicely browned and delicious and crumbly and fragrant.

As it’s quite sweet – despite not containing much added sugar – I like mine with a just dollop of vanilla yoghurt.

Mr Black prefers custard. (He is a pom, after all.)

Enjoy!