Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Quince & Craisin Crumble


What did you do for Mother's Day? Mother's Day for my family turned more into Mother's Intense Weekend of Eating. It's what our family does best. The finale to this weekend of eating was a home-cooked meal including a dessert baked by yours truly. We were so stuffed from all the eating we had already done that my brother prepared a light but delicious dinner; seared fresh abalone, sashimi, seaweed salad and a salmon, avocado, radish, cucumber and tomato salad with wafu dressing.

Live abalone


Seared abalone


Sashimi

Now what to do for dessert? Originally my Mum was extremely keen on brownies. I bought all the ingredients for them, but then we all got distracted by the idea of a warm crumble while watching Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall make beetroot crumble and beetroot brownies on the Lifestyle Food channel. After brunch at Sopra, we noticed some quinces on special at Fratelli Fresh and I remembered Lisa of spicy icecream mentioning that she was planning to do some baking with quinces. I'd never baked quince before but I thought experiment with it in my crumble. While trying to sort out the recipe in my head my Mum also pulled out a sample of Craisins (dried cranberries) that she had received in the mail, and I thought, why not?

I think it was a success. Considering that it was a totally improvised recipe, the result was a beautifully sticky toffee-like filling with a crunchy brown crumble on top, fairly well balanced in terms of sweetness and sourness. And so good with vanilla ice cream.

Quince and Craisin Crumble
For the filling:
2 quinces, peeled, cored and diced
1 cup sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp dried cranberries
1 tsp brandy

For the crumble:
(taken from crumble recipe in Sydney Food by Bill Granger)
1 cup plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3 tbsp quick cooking oats
100g butter, chopped into small pieces

Place chopped quince, butter, sugar and cinnamon in a small saucepan on medium heat and stir until butter has melted. Cover and allow to boil for 20 minutes, stirring every few minutes. Uncover and lower heat and continue to stir for about half an hour until the sauce thickens and the quince is softened. Taste quinces and add sugar if it is still too tart.

If you're not in a rush like I was, the quinces should eventually turn rose coloured. Remove from the heat and allow to cool to room temperature. Place dried cranberries in a bowl with brandy and add cold water until the fruit is completely covered. Soak for an hour or so.

Prepare the crumble: Place oats, brown sugar, flour and baking powder and mix well. Add the butter and rub between your finger tips until the mixture resembles coarse bread crumbs. When you are ready to assemble your crumbles, preheat your oven to 200 degrees C. Drain and rinse your cranberries and stir into quince filling. Spoon filling into 8 small ramekins and cover generously with crumble mixture. Pat crumble mixture down lightly.



Bake for 20 minutes or until top is golden brown and filling is bubbling up. Remove from oven and cool for 10 minutes. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

Yep so I was in a rush and my quinces were still yellow when I put the mixture in the oven, but the filling ended up having a wonderfully gooey, toffee consistency. The crumble was so crunchy and warm and the vanilla ice cream helped to lighten the stickyness of the filling. The quinces turned out to be a lovely filling for the crumble with their slight sourness and the cranberries add some nice colour :)
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14 comments:

  1. Oh my, that salmon looks luscious and begging to be eaten! And crumble? *drool*

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  2. Gorgeous idea for dessert! I love the idea of an intense weekend of eating... :) Your lucky Mum!

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  3. They look cute in ramekins! I like the sound of the gooey toffee filling.

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  4. I love the sound of the weekend-long feast! Your crumble sounds delicious!

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  5. sounds delicious! (and i love crasins... i could eat my way through an entire packet of them if no-one was looking)

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  6. cranberries and quinces and crumble - ohmy!

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  7. Karen - I know, gotta love fresh salmon sashimi :D hehe thanks!

    Anita - Thank you! Yes it was great fun but a bit taxing on my thighs!

    Arwen - I love the versatility of ramekins :) The texture of the filling was a nice surprise!

    Betty - It was fun and filling! Thank you!

    shez - I hadn't tried craisins before this but I really like them. I usually add sultanas to my porridge for brekkie but I am tempted to try craisins instead :)

    Trisha - heehee not a shabby combo hey? :D

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  8. Live abalone! thats something i havent had in a long time. I alway slook forward to going to weddings cos i know its always on the menu ^_^


    Your deserts always look divine! your mum must have been super happy with how you've spoilt her. Loving the texture of ur crumble ;) making my mouth melt

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  9. At $4 each I made sure I enjoyed every tiny morsel! Aww thank you so much! I think she was happy :) The crumble was great, I actually made a double batch because I wasn't sure how much I needed so I froze the leftover crumble and used it for some other recipes! It was very useful!

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  10. oooh, yuuuuum...

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  11. Mmmm craving crumblllee! That dessert sounds so perfect for this weather XD I must try this sometime yummm

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  12. tummyrumble.net - :D indeed, I wish I had some now!

    FFichiban - ooh yeah I seriously crave crumble when the temperature starts to drop, it's the best winter dessert!

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  13. oh wow, that looks incredible! I love this kind of dessert, they are perfect for winter. I still have a quince left. I might make this !

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  14. Thank you!! Me too, I've already used the leftover crumble I had from this recipe to make something else :) Ooh let me know if you do!

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