No Rhubarb?!

Sometimes it takes a while to work out what to bake for the day. Sometimes you flick through recipe books, reach for some in season magazines and ask people for ideas.

And other times, you just know exactly what you want to bake. We had mother's day dinner at Ash and Sean's house and I knew the perfect thing to bring on a wet, no grip on the roads day. Driving in the rain is not fun. I get that I'm warm and cosy in my car and it beats taking public transport for over an hour any day. But driving in the rain sucks. Anyway, getting back on track, I absolutely knew for certain that what we needed on a day just like this was a warm rhubarb crumble with a generous spoonful of vanilla ice cream. Yum.

On this particular night, rhubarb crumble was not to be. I asked the guy working at Toscano's if rhubarb was even in season yet - I wasn't sure. When he told me that they didn't have any today, maybe tomorrow, I must admit that my heart sunk a few centimetres. No fabulous rhubarb crumble with steam coming off the top and a crunchy crust like I had imagined.

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade as the saying goes, so my little cousin helped me pick out a few Granny Smith Apples and I decided to make apple and raspberry crumble instead. Still amazingly amazing with the crunchy crumble on top! Loved it! Sean and Ash declared it both their new favourites. So I would say that's a huge success.

We had a really fantastic night too. Being Mother's day (Christiane told me that it isn't Mother's day in France, theirs is in June), Sean and Christiane made roast pork stuffed with macadamias and pine nuts and leek and potato soup. The pork was cooked to perfection and the crackling was even better! You know someone really likes you if they give you their piece of crackling. Sometimes I feel so grateful for everything we have. I can't imagine wanting anything more than the family and friends I'm so lucky to be connected to. Oh and of course pork crackling... Life is sweet.

Apple and Raspberry Crumble Recipe
Adapted from
Makes enough for about 8 serves


Ingredients
Crumble Topping
1 cup (150g) all purpose flour
1/3 cup (75g) demerara sugar
100g butter, chilled, roughly chopped

Filling
550g Granny Smith apples (about 3)
1/3 (80g) cup sugar
1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped or 2 teaspoons vanilla essence
300g frozen raspberries

Method
Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius fan forced.

To make the crumble topping, combine the flour and the sugar and rub the butter into the mixture until there are small chunks of butter throughout. Set aside.

Prepare the apples by peeling and coring them. Cut them into 8 equal sized pieces. Use lemon juice to stop them from oxidising and turning brown. Combine the apples with the sugar and vanilla so that they are fairly evenly coated.

Place the apple mixture in a 1.5 litre (6 cup) capacity ovenproof dish and scatter the frozen raspberries on top. sprinkly the crumble topping evenly over the fruit.

Bake for about 50 minutes or until the apples in the middle have softened but still hold their shape. You can test this by inserting a toothpick in the middle of the crumble. It should feel like there is only a small amount of resistance in the apple piece and the toothpick should not get stuck. Leave to cool in the dish and serve warm with ice-cream.

I hope this crumble makes your day too!

From Jen.