Autumn Fruit and Marzipan Crumble and a Few Mistakes

Hello. Happy December. I hope you're wearing your Christmas jumper and have located some socks that sing jingle bells. Today I have a crumble for you...the perfectly simple, perfectly delicious British pud. Yet I'm afraid this particular one isn't perfect, in fact I wasn't going to tell you about it at all. I was rather disappointed about how it turned out.

But the more of it I ate (because however disappointing disappointing baking is, throwing away baking is a squillion times worse), the more I realised that really, the reason it was not as scrumptious as I was hoping it would be was just that I had made a few little mistakes in my method, and nothing to do with the actual concept.  

Mistake #1. Too much ginger- and I like ginger. Mistake #2. Too much marzipan- and I like marzipan. Mistake #3. Not enough body and bite to the crumble mixture- because I like crumble. Rather nonsensical I'm afraid, but with every mouthful I lamented these errors, and have done enough musing and reconsidering to be sure that my mistake of a crumble has left me equipped with enough insight to be able to tweak the recipe for you so that your crumble can be a greeeat success. Hurrah.

So I hope my silly mistakes don't put you off having a go; I know marzipan in a crumble sounds a bit zany and won't be everyone's cup of tea, but if you're a fan, go for it...and let me know how it goes, maybe you can give me some tips. With Love and Cake.

Autumn Fruits and Marzipan Crumble.

Inspired by Delicious Magazine

A few notes:

• Of course you absolutely do not have to include the marzipan, by all means leave it out and you'll have a lovely basic crumble.
• You could also leave out the spices if your fruit is particularly lovely tasting and you want a fresher taste.
• As usual I whizzed my crumble ingredients together in a food processor but you could just as easily rub the fat in with your fingertips.
• I've left the measurements for the fruits fairly vague because I think it should be the sort of crumble that you adapt to what's best, or even just what you have on hand, so feel free to experiment.

Makes a family sized crumble

You will need

a medium oven-proof dish

1 handful blackberries

2 small eating apple, roughly chopped to bite size pieces

1 small cooking apple, peeled and roughly chopped

1 pear, roughly chopped to bite size pieces

1 tbsp soft brown sugar

juice 1 lemon

1 pinch ground ginger

1/2 tsp cinnamon

100g marzipan

100g plain flour

1.5 tsp baking powder

50g butter

3 tbsp demerara sugar

3 tbsp rolled oats

• Preheat you oven to 200°c.
• Mix your fruit together in a bowl and gently stir through the sugar, lemon juice and spices.
• Transfer the mixture to your oven-proof dish and dot over bite sized pieces of your marzipan.
• Now time to get the crumble topping together by first pulsing the flour and baking powder together in your processor.
• Then whiz in the butter until it has the texture of coarse breadcrumbs, then tip it into a clean bowl and stir through the sugar and oats.
• Spoon the lovely crumble mixture over the fruit, it might look like a bit too much but you can't have too much crumble in my book, so pile high.
• Bake, with the dish on a baking sheet in case of any messy bubbling over of fruity juices, for 25-30minutes when the crumble should be golden and crunchy looking.
• I ate mine with a dollop of sharp creme fraiche but vanilla ice cream would also be wonderful, oooo or clotted cream. mmmmmmmmm

Apple and Elderberry Pie with Elderflower Custard.

Hiiiii, thanks for stopping by. So eeeerm, it's summer again. Uh I love to be warm...I even love to be hot, eeeven the sticky, sweaty kind.

But despite all the sunshine, dry washing and sandals going on outside but I've been kitchen-based all day; whizzing and chopping and rolling and stirring and bringing together this beast of an autumn feast.

You see I can't get too attached to this weather. I was obsessively stalking it throughout June, July and August and really all it did was get my feet wet (yep, I have holes in my shoes). I have just about accepted the sun's passing for another year and got over the heartache, so I am not about to let it back in for it only to dash my tan hopes again. So I will ignore it and bake with the fruits of my autumn foraging- all be it in shorts, while getting ready to spend the night in a tent.

So here it is; harvest season in a pud, a pie and a crumble rolled into one. Heck, it seems I'm on a roll of rolling things into one doesn't it. I think it's basically because the crumble part of crumble is brill but the fruit it sits on top of tends to leave me wanting, as if I'm eating something unfinished. And when has pastry ever made anything worse....er never. So by all means make a crumble, but if you have a few extra moments, make some pastry, and if you have a few more, make some custard, elderflower custard if you're feeling extra fancy, and take what this autumn has to offer while summer pretends that it's still generous too. With Love and Cake.

Apple and Elderberry Pie with Elderflower Custard

A few notes:

• This pastry is beautifully buttery and melt-in-the-mouthey thanks to the addition of ground almonds and a light hand. What that also means though is that it’s a bit of a bum to roll out because it is so short  and crumbly. What I tend to end up doing is rolling it out to the thickness I want, attempting to line the tin, and then patching up and patting in the leftovers into gaps and tears. So don’t be disheartened it will turn good in the end.
• Don’t have elderberries hanging about in your kitchen (why?)? How about using blackberries instead or maybe a mixture of apples and pears, or just plain old apples...really whatever you fancy, though I wouldn’t suggest tuna.
• You don’t have to go to the bother of making your own custard if you don’t fancy it, though it is rather impressive if that’s your agenda, the pie would be scrumptious with cream, or clotted ooo or ice cream.

Makes an 18cm pie and enough custard to go with it

You will need

An 18cm round cake tin or pie dish, greased

For the pastry

210g plain flour

50g caster sugar

50g ground almonds

125g butter

1 egg

For the topping

60g oats

40g nuts- used hazelnuts and brazil nuts, chopped

30g pumpkin seeds

70g plain flour

75g soft brown sugar

125g butter, melted

For the filling

2 small or 1 medium cooking apples, peeled cored and roughly chopped

175g elderberries

2tsp corn flour

50g soft brown sugar

For the custard

350ml elderflower cordial

4tbsp double cream

4 egg yolks

3 tbsp caster sugar

2 tsp corn flour

• So let’s get going. First things first make the pastry by popping all the dry ingredients into a food processor and pulse together. Then whiz in the butter followed by the egg and leave trundling around until it comes together to form a dough (you could also do this by rubbing in the butter with your finger tips then mixing in the egg by hand).
• Turn out the dough, pat into a disc and chill in the fridge for at least half an hour.
• When it’s ready roll it out as best you can and line the tin (see note). Pop the tin in the fridge while you get on with the rest of the pie. Preheat the oven to 180°c.
• Now it’s time to make the topping, by mixing the dry ingredients together in a bowl then stirring through the butter until you get a crumbly paste.
• For the filling mix the fruit together and tumble into the pastry lined tin set on a baking tray. Sprinkle over the corn flour and sugar and top with the oat-ey topping.
• Pop into the oven for 25 minutes until the topping is bronze and crisp and the pastry is golden.
• Meanwhile you can get on with the custard if you’d like. Heat the cordial and cream gently while you get the rest of the ingredients ready in a bowl and whisk together.
• When the cordial has just reached simmering point, trickle it over the egg mixture, whisking constantly.
• Pour everything back into the pan and heat gently, stirring all the time with a wooden spoon, until the custard has thickened. It will take long enough for you to get bored so make sure the radio is on and persevere until it coats the back of a spoon or has reached 85°c.
• Turn the pie out the tin, and serve a good slice with an healthy splosh of custard, and think that you won't be so sad summer when summer is officially over after all.