Apple, Pear and Blackberry Oat Crumble
- Sweet
- Oven
Soft baked apples and pears with juicy blackberries under a buttery brown sugar oat crumble. A warm, comforting dessert with a crisp golden top.
- Total
- 75 min
- Prep 15 · Cook 50 · Rest 10
- Serves
- 4
- Difficulty
- Easy
You'll practice: Dicing · Creaming butter
Instructions
-
Heat the oven to 190°C. Peel and core the apples and pears, then cut them into 2 cm chunks.
~10 min
Cut the fruit into even 2 cm chunks so the apples and pears soften at the same rate as the blackberries release their juice.
Dicing Cut the peeled fruit into even 2 cm chunks so every piece cooks at the same rate; uneven chunks leave some hard while others collapse.
-
Spread the apple and pear chunks in a baking dish about 20 x 25 cm. Scatter the blackberries over the fruit and sprinkle with 30 g of the brown sugar and the pinch of salt.
~5 min
The sugar draws juice from the fruit and the salt sharpens its flavour, so the filling turns soft and syrupy as it bakes.
-
Melt the butter in a bowl set in the warm oven for a few minutes, or soften it until workable. Add the oats and the remaining 70 g brown sugar and rub together with your fingertips until the mixture looks like coarse, clumpy crumbs.
~8 min
Rubbing softened butter into the oats coats the flakes and clumps them, so the topping bakes crisp and golden instead of turning to dry powder.
Creaming butter Rub the softened butter into the oats with your fingertips until coarse and clumpy; stop before it turns greasy or the topping bakes flat.
-
Scatter the oat crumble evenly over the fruit in an even layer, leaving a few gaps so steam can escape.
~2 min
The gaps let steam vent from the fruit; a sealed layer would trap moisture and leave the topping soggy rather than crisp.
-
Bake until the topping is deep golden and the fruit juices bubble at the edges, 35 to 40 minutes.
~40 min
Bubbling juices at the edges show the fruit is tender and the filling has thickened, while the deep golden top means the crumble is properly crisp.
If the topping browns too fast before the fruit is tender, lay a sheet of foil loosely over the dish for the last 10 minutes.
-
Let the crumble stand for 10 minutes so the juices settle before serving.
~10 min
Resting lets the bubbling juices thicken and reabsorb into the fruit, so portions hold together instead of running across the plate.
