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Made a cracking crumble last weekend. Audrey, our very wonderful friend, adopted Grandma & chief taster liked it.No mean feat as Audrey, by her own admission, can be a tad ‘awkward’
Here is the recipe.Handy if, like us, you have a rhubarb glut right now-

Speak soon.

Serves 6-8

Gluten free

Baking time 15 mins

Store- 3 days in the fridge. Freezes well

Can be reheated

Fruit Mixture Ingredients-

550g rhubarb, chopped

70g light brown sugar (more if you prefer more sweetness)

2 tbsp elderflower cordial. Blossom Cottage is lovely.Choose one with proper Elderflower Extract in.

Crumble Topping  Ingredients-

100g almonds, toasted and roughly chopped

55g ground almonds

100g  light brown sugar

90 g polenta

85 g chilled butter, cubed

1 tbsp light brown sugar for sprinkling

Strawberry Cream Ingredients-

330 ml whipping cream

200g strawberries (to make 6 tbsp strawberry coulis)

5 tsp elderflower cordial

Method

Preheat the oven to 180deg c/350F/Gas 4. Wash & chop rhubarb into chunks. Pop them in a pan with the orange juice & put the sugar over the top, lest it burns at the bottom of the pan. Put a lid on the pan & simmer on a gentle heat for a good 20 mins. Stir occasionally. The rhubarb needs to be frayed around the edges. You still want some chunky bits left.

To toast your almonds,

Spread out on a baking sheet & pop into your preheated oven for 3-4 mins. They want to have just started to darken. Then chop either by hand or briefly blitx in the food processor. You need them quite chunky.

Add the almonds to the other crumble ingredients and rub in the butter to the dry ingredients using your finger tips. You can use the food processor but don’t blitz the chopped almonds. Add them after blitzing.

You need a rustic looking crumble. Odd blobs of butter coated in crumb are fine.

Brush an oven proof dish with melted butter. Your dish needs to be 5-6cm deep. 25cm x 15 cm is ideal or 18cm diameter.

Pop you rhubarb in & then cover with crumble. Sprinkle a tbsp of sugar over the top.

Bake for 15 mins or until dark golden.

For the strawberries. Place hulled strawberries in a pan on a gentle heat. They’ll be soft enough after 10 mins. Press through a sieve with a wooden spoon & collect the juice.

Add the juice & elderflower cordial to the cream & whiz using an electric hand mixer until you get an airy soft mousse.