Autumn is well and truly upon us here in New Zealand – time for warm, hearty puddings. And nothing fits the bill quite so well as a fruit crumble.
This Feijoa, Apple & Boysenberry Crumble is a combination of various fruits I had on hand – namely some feijoas, tart green apples and frozen boysenberries. But, can I just say to those of you who don’t have access to feijoas (I gather they’re not so common around the world), that they’re not really essential to the success of this recipe. As far as I was concerned, it was really the apples and boysenberries that proved to be the stand-out combo.
I got my inspiration from two recipes – the filling component from Nadia Lim and the topping from Taste.co.nz. But really, fruit crumbles are pretty forgiving so adapt away to your heart’s content. So long as you have some fruit, some liquid for them to cook in, and a topping that will crisp up nicely, you’re set. Serve with a dollop of softly whipped cream and you’re in dessert heaven.
FEIJOA, APPLE & BOYSENBERRY CRUMBLE
Ingredients
For the filling:
- 3 granny smith apples (cored and roughly chopped)
- 1 cup water
- Zest and juice of half an orange
- 2 tbsp honey
- 1/2 tsp salt
- About 500g feijoas (flesh scooped out and roughly chopped)
- 1 cup boysenberries (fresh or frozen)
- Optional: 1 ball of stem ginger (finely chopped)
For the topping:
- 1/2 cup buckwheat flour (or regular flour)
- 1/2 cup rolled oats
- 1/2 cup ground almonds (almond meal)
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp ground ginger (or half a teaspoon, if also using the stem ginger in the filling)
- About 100g cold butter (grated)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180 deg C (355F).
- Put chopped apples into a medium-sized saucepan. Add water, orange juice, honey and salt, cover and bring to the boil. Turn down to a simmer and cook for a couple of minutes. Add feijoa pulp to the saucepan, stir then cover and cook for a further 2 minutes until lightly poached. Take off the heat. Drain the mix through a sieve, keeping the liquid, then put the fruit into a large bowl. Now add the boysenberries and the chopped stem ginger (if using) and gently stir to combine. Put the drained fruit and separate liquid aside while you make the crumble.
- In a large bowl mix together flour, oats, ground almonds, brown sugar and ground ginger. Add in the grated butter, then rub into the mixture (you may not need all the butter; use only enough for the mixture to start clumping together like rubble).
- Transfer the drained fruit to a greased ovenproof dish or individual ramekins – the fruit should fill three quarters of the dish. Now, add a little of the reserved liquid so that it comes about half way up the side of the dish. Sprinkle the crumble over the top of the fruit.
- Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C (360°F) for 20-25 minutes until the crumble is cooked and fruit juices start to bubble up through the crumble. Serve with fresh cream, custard or ice cream.
In Italy the weather is getting warmer, but I wouldn’t mind a warm nice crumble! It looks delicious!
Wow, so you live in my favourite country in the world (apart from NZ of course)! Lucky you!
New Zealand and Italy have a similar shape after all ;-))
But we have none of the culture.. hehe.
Well, don’t get me started on this ;-))) ….New Zealand is amazing!!!! You have plenty of jobs, beautiful houses and the beautiful nature…WOW!!! Unfortunately it’s so far!!! 😉
and the food, the wine…
Yes it’s true they’re both beautiful countries but I think the ‘feel’ is very different – we’re a very young country in comparison and I think that’s reflected a lot in our culture. In my next life I’ll live half the year in New Zealand and half in Italy!
Hi Susan, I just learned about feijoas! Writing a post about them and will link to this recipe!
Great! We’re so used to them here in New Zealand, I never thought they weren’t globally known!