Strawberry and Almond Crumble
I don't know what, how, or why it happens, but this is the crumble of dreams. The oven doesn't, as you might think, turn the berries into a red, slimy mess; instead, it imparts a rich, berry-flavored juiciness. It's akin to alchemy: you can take the cheapest, firmest strawberries from the supermarket, add almond-butter crumble, bake them, and transform them into the taste of English summer on a cold day. Naturally, serve with plenty of cream: I consider it essential, not optional.
Complexity: easily
Servings: 6
If I had to pick something that couldn't be improved upon in the cooking process, I'd bet a good amount on the strawberries being bad (unripe and tasteless). The only thing that bothers me and makes me admit my mistake is that I read an article by Simon Hopkinson, the legendary British chef, in which he recommends using such strawberries for pie. So I did. Well, that's not entirely true: I'm lazier than he is, so I made crumble.
1 glass (st.) - 250 ml.
3/4 cup (st.) - 180 ml.
2/3 cup (st.) - 160 ml.
1/2 cup (st.) - 125 ml.
1/3 cup (st.) - 80 ml.
1/4 cup (st.) - 60 ml.
1 tablespoon (tbsp) - 15 ml.
1 teaspoon (tsp) - 5 ml.
1/5 teaspoon (tsp) - 1 ml.
Ingredients for the recipe:
- 450 g of stemmed strawberries
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar
- 1/4 cup almond flour
- 4 tsp vanilla extract
For the top layer:
- 2/3 cup heaped wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 5 tbsp cold diced butter
- 1 and 1/4 cups sliced almonds
- Almost 1/2 tbsp. sugar turbinado
- Heavy cream for serving
- 1 ovenproof pie dish, about 20cm in diameter and 5cm deep (holds about 1 1/4 quarts)
We recommend
Cooking the dish according to the recipe:
- Preheat oven to 205°C.
Place the hulled strawberries in a pie pan (I use a round one), sprinkle with sugar, almond flour, and vanilla extract. Shake the pan well once or twice to combine the ingredients. - Next, prepare the top layer. To do this, place the flour and baking powder in a bowl and rub them into the cold, diced butter with your fingers (or use a stand mixer). When finished, you should have a crumbly texture resembling pale oatmeal. Add the slivered almonds and turbinado sugar and mix with a fork.
- Sprinkle this mixture over the strawberries to form an even layer, pressing lightly into the edges of the dish. Place the dish on a baking sheet and bake in the oven for 30 minutes. By this time, the top layer of crumble will be golden brown, and some of the pink-red juice will have oozed out and bubbling around the edges.
- Let stand for 10 minutes before serving. Serve with a pitcher of chilled heavy cream.
AdviceFor future use: The crumble can be prepared for baking up to 1 day in advance. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use. Bake as directed, but add an extra 5-10 minutes for cooking. Check: the crumble should be very hot in the center.
Freezing tip: The crumble topping can be frozen in a resealable plastic bag for up to 3 months. Sprinkle the crumble over the strawberries straight from the freezer, breaking up any large clumps with your hands. The finished, unbaked crumble can be frozen, wrapped in a double layer of plastic wrap and a layer of aluminum foil, for up to 3 months. Defrost in the refrigerator for 24 hours and bake as above.
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