Nectarine & Blackberry Crumble

Who doesn’t like beautifully stewed fruits with a golden crusted top. My usual go-to combination for crumble includes apples, however, my obsession with stone-fruit this summer has left me with more nectarines than I can eat out of hand.

So what do you do when you have an abundance of late-summer fruit that needs to be used up? Fruit crumble of course! One of my favourite end of summer desserts, the sweet, humble and incredibly comforting crumble combines the warmth that only Fall can promise while desperately holding onto the last reminiscence of sunshine. The added bonus to using stone-fruits in a crumble is their ability to create a juicier base that is often missing from the traditional apple crumble. With plenty of fruity syrup waiting to be soaked up by the crumb topping, this is my beautiful farewell to Summer.

Side note: adding a handful of berries adds a touch of extra colour and tartness.

Just a few notes to keep in mind:

• To save a little time, and to make sure all your butter pieces are the same, I use a little trick I picked up years ago while watching an episode of Martha (Stewart) Bakes. Grate cold or better yet, frozen, butter using the large holes of a box grater. Add the butter directly to flour mixture and gently stir. The only downside is you miss out of the strangely relaxing process of rubbing butter and flour together with your hands. Your choice!
• You can use pretty much any size baking dish for this recipe including individual ramekins for personal-sized crumbles. Just make sure to reduce the baking time by approx 10-15 minutes if using individual ramekins.
• This crumble is the prefect ‘make ahead’ dessert. Keep the fruit filling and crumble separated in the fridge and assemble just before baking. The bonus with doing this is that the fruit has more time to macerate and you will have a sweeter, juicer crumble.

Print Recipe

Nectarine & Blackebrry Crumble

Softly stewed stone-fruit and berries topped with a crisp crumb topping.

Prep Time15 mins

Cook Time40 mins

Total Time55 mins

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings: 6

Author: Kira McMullan

Ingredients

Fruit Filling

• 6-8 nectarines (sliced) *approx 2 pounds
• 100 g blackberries
• 200 g granulated sugar
• 35 g gluten free flour blend
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 tbsp lime juice *approx half a lime

Crumble Topping

• 120 g gluten free flour blend
• 113 g unsalted butter (cold and cubed) *1 stick of butter
• 68 g granulated sugar
• 50 g dark brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt

Instructions

Fruit Filling

• Preheat oven to 350°F/180°C.

  In a small bowl mix together the flour and sugar. Set aside. In a large bowl, toss the sliced nectarines, honey and lime juice. sprinkle the flour/sugar mixture over the nectarines and mix until evenly coated. Gently mix in the blueberries. Pour the fruit mixture into a oven safe 8 x 9 dish and set aside allowing the fruit to macerate for 5-10 minutes.

Crumb Topping

• In a large bowl combine the flour, sugars, salt, cinnamon, and add the cubed butter and work with your hands until the butter is the size of peas.  Sprinkle the topping evenly over the fruit.

  Place the dish on a sheet pan to catch any drippings and bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until the top is browned and crisp and the juices are bubbling. If the top is browning too soon, cover with foil to keep the crumble topping from burning.

  Served warm out of the oven topped with vanilla ice cream or pouring custard.