Summer Dessert

After our busy week in London, I spent the first few days back getting back on track with chores and preparing for the summer. The weekend was spent relaxing at home and since I was craving a fruity dessert, I thought why not attempt an apple crumble? After looking through several cookbooks, I finally found a really easy version in Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything. His recipe was used only apples but I decided to make use of whatever summer fruits I had in the fridge s0 my version has yellow peaches, a bit of mango, some strawberries and apples. It was exactly what I wanted, a not so sweet fruit-based dessert with a crisp topping - perfect with creme fraiche or vanilla ice cream. Since plain vanilla ice cream is almost impossible to find in the supermarkets here (don't ask me why, I have no idea), we settled for the vanilla-based Macadamia nut brittle from Häagen-Dazs which worked out wonderfully with the fruit crumble.

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Summer fruit crumble

(adapted from Mark Bittman's Apple Crisp in How to Cook Everything)

• 6 cups, peeled, cored and sliced fruits (I used 2 cups apples, 2 cups yellow peaches, 1 cup mango and 1 cup strawberries. Try to slice the fruits in about the same size and shape)
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• 2/3 cup brown sugar (If you want it less sweet, you can reduce the sugar to 1/2 cup)
• 5 Tbsp. cold, unsalted butter plus extra for greasing the pan 1/2 cup rolled oats (I used Quaker oatmeal, not the instant or quick-cooking kind)
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup shredded unsweetened coconut, optional
• 1/4 cup chopped nuts, optional (I didn't add any nuts because I didn't have any)
• dash salt
  
• Preheat the oven to 400F (around 200C).
• Toss the sliced fruit in the lemon, cinnamon and 1 tablespoon of the brown sugar.
• Lightly butter the bottom of the pan (I used a ceramic baking dish but you can also use either a 9-inch round baking pan or an 8-inch square baking pan).
• Spread the fruits lightly in the pan.
• Combine the rest of the ingredients in a food processor and pulse until everything is Incorporated. Alternatively, you can soften the butter the slightly, then toss the dry ingredients together and work in the butter with your fingertips or a fork).
• Spread the topping evenly over the fruits and bake for 30 to 4o minutes until the topping is browned and the fruits are tender.
• Serve hot, warm or at room temperature with some double cream, creme fraiche or even better, vanilla ice cream.