Serves 4, or more with ice-cream
Fruit is fab until you go OTT at the farmers’ market and you’re practically swimming in a sea of dangerously squishy plums —old lady qualms, I know.
“Treat yo’self” is definitely a mantra that gets me right in the feels. I know sugar is bad, but it seems a bit ridiculous to banish it because of my health, yet happily shotgun a beer on my mate’s deck for fun. So here we go, treat yo’self for the sake of an article, use up all this semi-mingin’ fruit, go on. I’ll indulge myself in a crumble purely for your benefit. Woe is life.
While you’re on the treat yo’self buzz, why don’t you go get some ice cream on the flat card too? Your pedantic, anal, “who owes who 10 cents” flatmate will probably crack the shits, but she’ll come around as soon as you whip it out for flat dinner.
“Flat dinner?” You ask.
Yes, flat dinner. Realistically, this crumble’s got more servings of your 5+ a day than that crap limp macaroni from a packet your tragic flatmate cooked last night. Remember, we’re allegedly adults and we can do what we want. Break the rules—treat yo’selves!
Ingredients
Base:
- 16 small plums* (I had black doris), stoned and quartered
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 cardamom pods, crushed
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 palmful of brown sugar (I literally grabbed it and chucked it in the pot)
- A splash of water to cover the fruit
Crumble Topping:
- 2/3 cup of rolled oats
- 1/3 cup of flour
- 1/3 cup of packed brown sugar
- 60g of butter, room temperature (proper room, not flat room. Put the heater on!)
*If you don’t have any plums then substitute for a couple of ripe pears
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180°C.
- In a small saucepan, combine all the ingredients for the base and let them simmer away until the sauce reduces and becomes lusciously syrupy.
- In a bowl, combine the dry ingredients of the crumble and rub the butter through it with your fingers. It’s going to be messy so just own it and lick your fingers when you’re done.
- Find something that resembles ovenproof, spoon out the plums and add just enough syrup so that it doesn’t dry out, and cover with the topping.
- Bake for 15 minutes. Enjoy!