Summer fruit crumble (YAY!)

I’ve been waiting for me to get my business together so I can finally come say hi to all of you, blog-style hi – with dessert. As much as I love food – and right now is the peak of food-showing off season – I just want to throw a can of baked beans over a campfire. Sunday we made this fried chicken, I invented a coleslaw (sorry America) and ate a can of Bush’s baked beans (YEAH!). It’s been beautiful. I wish I could say I was writing my first book or stand-up paddle boarding but that would be untrue. Instead, most of the day involves commuting, book-reading, bubble teas, and me hanging with the tomatoes. The biggest and best strokes of inspiration comes to me when I’m shopping for fruit-vegetables, making impulse purchases and kitchen cabinet exploration trips taken to the back of the shelves…the parts we rarely ever see. This dessert is a food baby of all these things. It’s okay to not want to cook. It’s sunny. Who needs the pressure? Not me.

Watch Broad City instead. Then come back and quote all the quotes with me.

Summer fruit crumble

This recipe makes approximately 4 ramekin-sized crumbles and is one of the easiest fancy summer desserts to put together. It’s important to have that one go-to dessert that will never disappoint and leaves you with enough time to frolic with your tomato plants or whatever it is that made it to your summer 2015 bucket-list. You can also eat it for breakfast. We did. Put this one down

You can change up the flavour by subbing cardamom with other warm spices like nutmeg or ginger. You can also swap out the fruit with whatever is in season. Don’t forget to top it with fresh whipped cream or vanilla ice-cream at the end. It’s the best best best.

The crumbles can be baked and stored in the fridge, well-covered, for 2 days. However, it tastes best when freshly cooked. But you already know this.

Ingredients

For the crumble

• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup corn meal or corn grits
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup cold unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup rolled oats
• 1/4 cup cashew nuts, coarsely chopped

For the fruit filling

• 1 slightly heaped cup apricots, halved and pitted
• 1 slightly heaped cup cherries, halved and pitted
• 1 (slightly heaped) cup strawberries, cut into 1/4 inch pieces
• Juice of half a lemon
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp dark brown sugar (you can use more or less depending on how sweet or sour your fruit is)

Heat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Mix together the whole wheat flour, corn meal or grits, baking powder, cardamom and sugar in a bowl. Cut the cold butter into cubes and add it to the crumble mixture. Using your finger tips, cut the butter into the flour until the butter is pea-sized and the mixture resembles a coarse meal. Cover the bowl and place it back into the fridge so the butter firms back up just a bit. The firmer the butter stays, the crumblier it will stay.

Toss the prepared fruit with the vanilla extract and brown sugar in a small bowl. Add the fruit to the ramekins until about 3/4 full. Sprinkle about 3-4 tbsp of the crumble mixture on top of the fruit. Make sure you don’t fill it right to the top. Sprinkle the rolled oats and cashew nuts over each ramekin. Leave a little breathing room, because the fruit will bubble and maybe spill over.

Place the ramekins on a baking sheet and put it in the oven for 25-30 minutes or until the top brown and fruit starts to bubble. Take it out of the oven and let it cool for 10 minutes before digging in. Serve with ice-cream or fresh whipped cream.

(PS: ^ Sneak peak at my new comic titled “Gillian”)