Plum and Walnut Crumble

This lightly spiced, Plum and Walnut Crumble is autumn in a bowl.

It’s one of my mum-in-laws favourite dishes of mine, and one of the easiest to make. There are only four steps to the whole recipe – stew the plumbs, mix the crumble, pour one on top of the other, bake. It’s that simple. But boy does it taste good!

I’m lucky enough to have a plum tree in my garden, so I use home-grown fruit, but shop bought will work just as well. You could even use a mix of plums and damsons if you like, or any other soft fruit. I think peaches would work wonderfully in this recipe too. You can bulk it out with apples, if you’re struggling to get hold of enough plums. Though beware; apples are a harder fruit and will need longer to cook, so chop them up small, if using, and don’t add too many.

This dessert freezes well. Just portion it up into air-tight containers and freeze. Then you can either microwave a portion at a time until it’s piping hot, or defrost, then warm through in the oven for an extra crispy crumble topping.

I serve mine hot with a generous helping of vanilla ice cream.

Ready in 50mins (15mins prep, 5mins on the hob, 30mins bake) – Serves 6.

Ingredients:

200g of soft brown sugar
225g of unsalted butter
2 good pinches of mixed spice
650g of plums, halved and de-stoned
150g of plain flour
100g of rolled oats
150g of walnuts, blitzed or finely chopped

Method:

Put 150g of sugar, 75g of butter, 1 good pinch of mixed spice and all the plums into a pan over a medium heat on the hob.
simmer for 5mins, stirring regularly, to soften the plums, then pour into an oven proof dish.

Pre-heat your oven to 200c / 180c fan / gas mark 6.
Place the rest of the sugar, butter, mixed spice and all of the flour into a clean bowl and rub in until it resembles breadcrumbs.