Bloke's Cookbook - Plum Crumble

The relentless rain and gloom that has characterised yet another summer is bad news for most of the soft fruits in the Garden of England where I live. The strawberries are insipid and pale and the raspberries are sharp instead of sweet. The one thing that has really benefited from this year's torrents (although if you believe the BBC sixteen weeks of grey cloud and rain in the summer is normal) are tree fruit such as plums. They don't like dry conditions and the consistent rainfall interspersed with brief bouts of sunshine suits them well. So this year's a bumper year for plums and so here's a recipe for you.

It's so easy to prepare. Assuming that some of you don't have access to the luxuries of a PYO farm, I'll be giving instructions for supermarket plums too. You'll be able to do nearly as good a job with them but it'll take some extra work

You will need:
Around 2lb plums;
50g dark brown muscovado sugar (for supermarket plums);
100g plain flour;
75g unsalted butter;
75g light brown sugar;
A mixing bowl;
A sieve;
A saucepan;
A cast iron or ceramic cooking/serving dish.

Preheat the oven to 190C.

Firstly, cut the plums in half and remove the stones. Place the halved plums in the saucepan with no more than a dash of water and, if you're using supermarket plums, the muscovado sugar. Turn the heat on to low and leave to cook gently while you prepare the crumble.

Sieve the flour in to the mixing bowl. Cut the butter in to 1cm cubes, and add this to the bowl. Now you need to mix the butter in to the flour so that the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. To do this, use both hands and rub the butter between the tips of your index fingers and thumbs. It'll take around ten minutes to get it the right consistency. It might not look as though it's going to work, but it will - just keep rubbing the butter in to the flour and gradually it'll go the way you want it.
You can, if you want, do this in a food processor but I prefer to do it by hand since it's less washing up.

Once you've got the crumble mix to the required consistency, add the brown sugar to the mix. Stir in with a spoon.

It's now time to check the plums. They should have softened, the sugar should have melted. Take your serving dish, and lift the plums out of the saucepan and put them in it. Make sure you leave the liquid behind for now. Put the plums in a layer in the bottom of the dish. Now, take a look at the amount of liquid you've got. You need to make sure there's enough for the plums to sit in while they cook. If you've got too much liquid, then boil it for a couple of minutes. This'll get rid of the excess water and leave the plummy goodness. Once you've got it reduced a bit, pour it over the plums.

Now pour the crumble mix across the top of the plums. Spread it out fairly evenly. It should give you around half an inch of crumble mix on top. It looks like a lot, but the plum juice should soak up some of that.

Now put the crumble in the oven for about 35 minutes. Check every now and then to make sure the top's not burning. Et voila.

You can reheat this dish by putting it in the oven for about 20 minutes at 180C if you need to. If you're worried about the topping burning, lightly sprinkle some water across the top.

If you want to serve it with something, try whipped cream (not the stuff out of a can) or custard. I'll be doing a custard recipe at some point but for now buy the good stuff from the shops.

Drink with: Not really applicable since this is a dessert.

Ease of cooking and preparation: 4/5 - Very easy.

Mess Factor: 4/5 - A saucepan, a mixing bowl.

Leftover value: 4/5 - It's pretty good cold but better hot and it reheats fine.