← Nouns Cooking · Dessert Parlour

Ingredients

• 900 g Fresh plums, halved and stoned
• 50 g light brown sugar
• 1 Orange, zested and juiced
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 200 g plain flour
• 125 g Butter, cold, diced
• 60 g caster or demerara sugar
• 50 g Ground almonds
• 30 g flaked almonds (optional)
• custard, cream or ice cream, to serve (optional)

Method

1. Heat the oven to 190°C (170°C fan, 375°F). Toss the plums with the brown sugar, orange zest and juice and half the cinnamon, then spread them in a baking dish of about 20 × 30 cm.
2. Rub the flour and butter together with your fingertips until it looks like coarse breadcrumbs with a few pea-sized lumps left.
3. Stir in the sugar, ground almonds, the rest of the cinnamon and the flaked almonds if using. Squeeze a few handfuls together so you get some bigger clumps.
4. Scatter the crumble loosely over the plums without pressing it down.
5. Bake for 35–40 min, until the topping is deep golden and purple juices bubble up around the edges. Rest for 10 min before serving.

Tips

• Very tart plums may need another 1–2 tbsp of sugar; taste one first.
• Freeze the rubbed topping in a bag and you can bake a crumble straight from the freezer whenever plums are cheap.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

BBC Good Food olive magazine Great British Chefs