Pear, Cranberry and Ginger biscuit Crumble

While I was checking the recipe for making my Cranberry Compote today, I noticed that I’d put the bones of this recipe into my drafts. When I realised that I had all the ingredients in the house – I thought ‘sure it would be rude not to try it!’  – I’m so glad I did!

This is an amazing Crumble – it’s grown-up – not too sickly sweet, as some crumbles can be. The addition of the Ginger biscuits to the crumble is a great idea – and the smell as it bakes is fabulous,  it wafts through the house causing various critters to sniff the air expectantly..

So here we are, on the coldest, windiest night of the year so far, with a delicious not-too-sweet Crumble for our dessert. This will feed 6 very comfortably..

 

 

 

 

 

 

EQUIPMENT: 

• A 1.5-2.0 litre pudding dish
• A bowl to make the crumble
• A small pot for the microwave
• A small bowl for the sugar and cornflour

INGREDIENTS:

For the Crumble:

• 120g Plain flour
• 50g Demerara sugar
• 30g  light Muscovado sugar
• 125g or about 16 Ginger Biscuits, crushed finely. I used a plastic bag and a rolling pin – but a food processor would be much better – Ginger snaps are tough cookies!! If you want to be posh, you could make your own – https://eatingforireland.com/recipe/ginger-biscuits/    Today, I’m not feeling posh.. 😉
• 1/2 a teaspoon ground ginger
• Pinch of salt
• 100g  unsalted butter, melted.

For the filling:

•  4 or  5 large ripe, but not too soft, pears (I used Conference – they’re my favourite) peeled, halved, cored and sliced into chunks – my prepared pears weighed 600g today, to give you an indication. See NOTES, because peeling pears isn’t as easy as it sounds!
• 170g fresh cranberries, washed and drained
• Finely grated zest of a smallish lemon (or an orange, if you feel so inclined – Cranberry and orange are made for each other)
• The juice of your lemon, or orange..
• Capful of Vanilla extract, or, in my case a small teaspoon of Vanilla Paste.
• 100g  Golden caster sugar
• 1 tablespoon of corn flour

METHOD:

• Heat the oven to 160C Fan or equivalent.
• Put the crumble dish onto a baking tray and leave to one side.
• Melt the butter.
• Zest the lemon and squeeze the juice.
• Make the crumble topping: Stir together the flour, granulated sugar, brown sugar, ginger biscuit crumbs, ground ginger and salt until well combined.
• Stir in the melted butter until large clumps form.

• Peel the pears (see NOTES) and cut them into chunks.
• Then add the pears, cranberries, lemon juice, lemon zest and vanilla into the pudding dish, and mix together well.

• In a small bowl, combine the sugar and corn flour together, then mix it well into the fruit mixture.
• Sprinkle the crumble over the fruit.

• Bake the crumble for about 45 – 50 minutes, until the crumble topping is a shade darker, and you can see juices from the burst cranberries bubbling through the crumbs – I love that bit! If your pears are a little under-ripe, as mine were today, test the centre with a long knife to make sure they’ve softened enough.

• Let the Crumble sit for 5-10 minutes, then serve with a dollop of lightly whipped cream. Or, if your name is Mr Saturday Night, with custard..

NOTES:

• Peeling pears: I found that the best way is to cut off the tops, slice down the middle, use a small teaspoon to extract the core, then peel with a fine knife or potato peeler. Then cut them into fairly large chunks.
• Do use a 2 litre dish for this Crumble if you can; this is quite a large recipe. The dish in these pictures is 1.5litres capacity.
• The plastic-bag-and-rolling-pin method for crushing the biscuits is just a little time consuming, a food processor will make short work of crushing these biscuits.
• I’ll definitely be making this Crumble again and again – I think it’s a fantastic combination of flavours!