Autumn Damson Crumble Recipe
Cooking with local produce means your food hasn’t had to make a long journey to get to your dinner plate. Which is great news ecologically! Plus, it’s my feeling that eating seasonally really helps you feel calm, grounded and part of the landscape. And so how about you, what fresh produce is in season where you are?
I’ve lived in both the countryside and the city, and I must say while in the city It wasn’t that obvious to me which foods were in season locally because I just didn’t see many of them being grown. In the countryside on the other hand, it was a little easier for me to cook alongside mother nature because I could more easily find local farms, farm shops and harvest festivals — all of which made it simpler to understand and celebrate the seasonal food landscape.
And so if like me you aren’t always sure what’s in season where you are do take a peak at this handy website! (Link) Something I look forward as autumn rolls in each year is a small sweet plum like fruit called a Damson. While I could happily eat them straight from the fruit bowl, one healthy desert that always goes down well at my house is this simple autumn damson crumble recipe.
I hope you enjoy it and it brings a little autumn cheer from my house to yours.
Happy Cooking,
Emma
Ingredients:
- 1 large handful of damsons (or substitute for plums)
- 5 apples, cored and sliced into thin segments.
- 1 tablespoon of local honey
- A small cup of water
- A gentle covering of oat mix or granola mix.
- Usually I make my own mix by blending oats and mixed nuts, however on this occasion I used Eat Natural Nuts and Seed Cereal.
How to make it.
- Start by making the damson mix. I usually add the damsons to a small pan with a little water and heat them gently for 5 minutes or so. (A little like making stewed fruit.) Watch them carefully so they don’t burn and once they start to go soft remove them off the heat and use a tea spoon to remove all the little stones. You’ll be left with a little pot of semi stewed fruit, which you can put to one side for now.
- Wash, core and slice the apples. It’s conventional to peel apples before putting them in an apple crumble, but i wanted to have a more rustic feel for this so I left the skin on mine. Lay them down in your baking dish, covering the bottom of your oven proof dish.
- Next, pour the damson mix over the apples keeping a table spoon of the mix back, for decorating.
- Pour the remaining water over the fruit.
- take the cereal and slowly pour it evenly over the fruit mix. I use a thin, light dusting of cereal but really this can be at your preference.
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and bake for 20 mins, keeping an eye to make sure the toping doesn’t brown too quickly.
- When the crumble is complete you will be able to dip your desert spoon into it, and find lots of soft, gorgeous cooked apple.
- Pour the remaining damson juice in a decorative whirl over the top of the crumble and voila!
If you enjoyed this recipe you might also like to try the baked apple dish here
