Pear and cranberry crumble recipe
Nuts add a special texture, flavour and crunch to this crumble, while pears are available almost year-round. A good crumble combines moist fruit with a crispy topping. However, raw crumble-top ingredients can take a while to cook in the oven. To speed the process and ensure good crunch, toast the topping separately in a roasting tray in the oven, then add to fruit base at the end and finish off the whole dish quickly in the oven to make sure it's heated through.
Ingredients
4 pears, peeled and cut into 2cm pieces
1/2 cup dried cranberries
11/2 cups water
3/4 cup castor sugar
1 cinnamon stick
2 cloves
Rind of 1/2 a lemon
1/4 cup slivered almonds
1/2 cup pecans, sliced
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup oats
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
50g butter, cut into cubes
Method
1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Place pears, cranberries, water, sugar, cinnamon stick, cloves and lemon rind in a saucepan. Bring to boil then simmer until pears are soft, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat and discard spices and rind.
3. Place the remaining ingredients in a bowl and rub in butter, place evenly on a roasting tray and toast in the oven until golden, about 15 minutes. Stir occasionally with a spoon so that crumble mix toasts evenly.
4. Spoon pears into four ramekins (200ml capacity), cover liberally with crumble mix and bake in the oven until starting to bubble at the sides.
Serve with custard, cream or vanilla ice-cream.
Note: crumble mix keeps well in an airtight container for a week.
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