Strawberry Almond Crumble Food

STRAWBERRY AND ALMOND CRUMBLE

Steps:

• If I had to choose one thing that cooking could not make better, I'd have put good money that it would have been a bad (as in unripe and tasteless) strawberry. I'd almost be embarrassed even owning up to trying to improve it, were it not for the fact that I read an article by Simon Hopkinson, a revered British chef, in which he advised using said strawberries in a pie. So I did. Well, that's not quite true: I am lazier than him, so I made a crumble. I don't know what, how or why it happened, but this is a crumble of dreams. The oven doesn't, as you'd think, turn the berries into a red-tinted mush of slime, but into berry-intense bursts of tender juiciness. This is nothing short of alchemy: you take the vilest, crunchiest supermarket strawberries, top them with an almondy, buttery rubble, bake and turn them into the taste of English summer on a cold day. Naturally, serve with lashings of cream: I regard this is obligatory not optional.
• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Put the hulled strawberries into your pie dish (I use a round one) and sprinkle over them the sugar, almond meal, and vanilla extract. Give the dish a good shake or two to mix the ingredients.
• Now for the crumble topping: put the flour and baking powder in a mixing bowl and rub in the cold, diced butter between thumb and fingers (or in a free standing mixer).When you've finished with it, it should resemble rough, pale oatmeal. Stir in the sliced almonds and turbinado sugar with a fork.
• Tip this over the strawberry mixture, covering the strawberries in an even layer and giving a bit of a press in at the edges of the dish. Set the dish on a cookie sheet and bake in the oven for 30 minutes, by which time the crumble topping will have darkened to a pale gold and some pink-red juices will be seeping and bubbling out at the edges.
• Let stand for 10 minutes before serving, and be sure to put a pitcher of chilled heavy cream on the table alongside.

STRAWBERRY-ALMOND CRUMBLE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Combine strawberries, apple, sugar, vanilla and 2 tablespoons flour in a shallow baking dish, mix well.
• For topping combine 1/2 cup flour, oats, almonds, nutmet and brown sugar in a medium bowl.
• Using a pastry cutter, or 2 knives, cut butter into topping mixture until coarse crumbs form.
• Sprinkle crumb topping evenly over fruit mixture.
• Bake about 25 minutes, until topping is lightly browned.
• Cool 15 minutes before serving.

STRAWBERRY & RHUBARB CRUMBLE

Steps:

• Heat oven to 190C/170C fan/gas 5. To make the crumble, mix the flour, ground almonds and sugar in a bowl, then rub in the butter as though you are making pastry. Tip the mixture onto a large baking tray and spread out evenly. Create little clumps in the mixture by pinching it together with your fingers, then bake for 10 mins.
• Meanwhile, make the fruit layer. Mix the sugar and cornflour together in a large bowl, then toss in the berries and rhubarb until well coated. Tip the mixture into a pan and cook over a gentle heat, stirring until the fruit softens a little and any released juices thicken.
• Tip the fruit mixture into an ovenproof dish, scraping in all the thickened juices. Add the flaked almonds to the crumble mixture, then scatter over the top. Bake for 20 mins until the fruit is tender and the crumble golden. Leave to cool slightly, then serve warm with vanilla ice cream, if you like.