Plums Crumble

Food blogs introduced me to fruit crumbles. I wouldn't have known about thier existence, if it were not for those wonderful food blogs that I visit. When I bought plums yesterday, only crumble came to my mind. I agree, plums can be eaten as it is, but these days, anything I buy, the first thing that comes to my mind is, "can I make something different using this"..May be that is the side effect of blogging and blog hopping...

I saw the definiton for crumble in wiki which says, its stewed fruits with a cripsy topping usually made of flour, sugar and butter. I made a fruit crumble using the plums.(though I did not stew the plums) The crumble tasted very nice though the tartness of the plums was prominent. The dark red color of the baked fruit was very striking.(though I have not captured well in the pictures. :-) )

Ingredients for the fruit mixture to serve 4 adults

Plums: 170 gms after removing the seed or around 10 to 12 numbers(de-seeded and cut into medium sized pieces)
Brown sugar: 2 tbsp(can be varied based on the tartness of the fruit)
Cinnamon: a pinch(optional)
Nut meg: a pinch(optional)

Ingredients for the topping

All purpose flour: 1 cup(130 gms)
Granulated white sugar: 2 tbsp
Butter: 100 gms which is little less than half a cup (cold and cut into small pieces)
Salt: less than 1/8th of a tsp

Procedure

1. Mix all the ingredients in the fruit mixture(plums, brown sugar, cinnamon and nut meg) in a bowl and keep aside for 15 minutes.
2. In another bowl, mix flour, salt and sugar
3. Add butter to the flour mixture and mix such that it is crumbly.(I ran a stand mixer for 3 to 4 seconds to get a crumbly dough)Do not make a soft dough, otherwise it will not be that cripsy after baking.
4. In a baking tray, first spread the fruit mixture evenly.(I used a pie tin)
5. Then spread the topping over the fruit mixture.
6. Bake in a pre-heated oven for 30 minutes at 160 degree C or until the topping turns light brown in color.

Note: As I used a pie tin to bake the crumble, I first spread some dough in the corners of the tin to avoid leakage of fruit mixture. The plums had very strong tartness due to which the crumble was very sour. So, I will not try a plum crumble again(unless the plums are sweet), but will try with other fruits like apple.Next time I might try topping the fruit with crushed biscuits and oats to make it low fat..