Vanilla Almond Plum Crumble
Vanilla Almond Plum Crumble is a bubbling cauldron of ripe jewel-toned fruit topped with a sweet rubble of brown sugar, oats, flour, and butter... aka the best (and easiest) summer dessert on the planet.
Servings: 6 servings
Ingredients
filling
- 6 large plums mine weighed 2.2 pounds or 966 grams
- 1/4 cup or 60 grams sugar
- seeds of one vanilla bean or 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 Tbsp Instant Clearjel or 2 Tbsp cornstarch
crumble
- 1/2 cup or 63 grams flour
- 1/2 cup or 54 grams oat flour you can also use rolled oats, or grind rolled oats in your food processor or high speed blender to make oat flour
- 1/2 cup or 79 grams lightly packed brown sugar
- 4 Tbsp or room temperature butter
- 1 tsp almond extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F
- Thinly slice or chop the plums, discarding the pits. Toss with the sugar, seeds of the vanilla bean, and the Clearjel or thickener of your choice. Set aside.
- Whisk the flours and sugar together and then add the butter, breaking it up into smaller pieces, along with the extract. Use your clean hands to combine the mixture thoroughly into a crumbly texture.
- Put the fruit into a baking dish (any dish that will fit your fruit snugly is fine, mine is a 71/2 x 91/2 oval) and top with the crumble.
- Put the dish onto a baking sheet to catch any drips, and bake for 55-60 minutes, or until the top is golden and the juices are really bubbling. I sometimes top the crumble loosely with a sheet of foil toward the end of baking to prevent it browning too much.
- Serve warm, or at room temperature with vanilla ice cream. Store any leftovers on the counter covered with foil.
Notes
Can I make this crumble ahead?
- Crisps and crumbles are perfect for making ahead. I like to assemble the filling and the topping, refrigerate separately for up to 2 says, and then combine and bake when I'm ready.
- You can of course freeze any type of fruit to make a quicker crumble. Just slice or dice the fruit, then lay it out on a parchment lined baking sheet. Freeze until solid, about an hour, then pack in a heavy duty freezer bag, sucking out any excess air before zipping closed. You can also
- You can even freeze the topping! Freeze enough for a summer's worth of quick crumbles using the same method as above. Lay out the prepared crumble topping on a baking sheet and freeze for an hour, then pack in a freezer bag. Portion out as needed.
- The whole crumble can be frozen, baked or unbaked, I prefer it unbaked. Wrap it securely in double layers of foil and then in plastic.