apple & pear cinnamon crumble

Recipe Tuesday

Welcome to The Apéritif! Recipe Tuesday is a bi-monthly seasonal vegan recipe published every other Tuesday evening.

It’s apple and pear season, and I’m eating a lot of them at the moment. How can I not, when the fruit is so abundant and tasty at this time of year. Unlike pumpkins, which are also associated with autumn but are more of an American import and were not really a feature of my childhood except by virtue of American pop culture, I grew up in a house with a pear tree and an apple tree. Well actually, the apple tree was in our neighbour’s garden, but its branches stretched over the fence and she kindly let us have any apples that were on our side. We used a long apple-picking device to get them off the branches in the autumn and turn them into desserts, since they were cooking apples and too sour to eat raw. Later on, we lived in a house with trees full of greengages and Victoria plums, amongst other things. Blackberries were always abundant in local hedgerows. Harvesting all the fruit and veg was actually quite a job.

I have no way to grow or pick my own fruit now, living in central Paris. Local markets and farm shops are as close as I get to the source, but even that I enjoy. I love going to one particular shop each week and seeing what their supplier farms in the greater Paris region, as well as some farms further afield in Normandy and Brittany, have delivered that week. It’s a small way of trying to keep abreast of the rhythm of the seasons and of the land, from which so many of us are so fundamentally disconnected today. And at the moment, apples and pears are everywhere - so many varieties, shapes, colours, tastes and textures.

I put cinnamon in everything at this time of year, but if it’s not your thing (I know such people exist) you can omit it - it’s the sweet juicy fruit that really shines through anyway. I like the combination of apples and pears together because they each bring something slightly different. October in a piping hot dish.

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 2 red eating apples, peeled and chopped into 1-inch cubes

• 2 pears, peeled and chopped into 1-inch cubes

• 1 tsp cinnamon

• 1 cup plain flour

• 1/2 cup vegan butter

• 1/2 cup demerara sugar

• 1/4 cup oats

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170 C (fan).

2. Peel and core the apples and pears, then slice them into 1-inch cubes. Place them in a baking dish (I like to use a 9 inch / 23cm round or square dish) and sprinkle over the cinnamon, then stir until it’s all coated. Pour over 1 tbsp of water to coat them and stop them drying up while cooking.

3. Make the crumble topping: put the flour in a large bowl, then ‘cut’ in the butter. I do this by using my fingers, rubbing it into the flour until it resembles a breadcrumb consistency. Once the fat is cut through the flour, stir in the sugar and the oats until everything is well combined.

4. Distribute the crumble topping over the fruit and smooth it down so it’s all even.

5. Bake the crumble for 30-40 minutes: for me 40 minutes is about right, but it will depend a bit on your oven. You want the crumble topping to be golden and the fruit to be really soft.

6. Leave to cool and settle for 5 minutes, then serve it up as you desire - with custard, cream, ice cream, or whatever you like. Since I can’t easily get vegan-friendly custard, cream or ice cream that I like near me, I really like it with vegan vanilla yoghurt.