Nashi Crumble

Introduction:

My first blog entry is a dessert crumble I made using the excess of nashis that our family grew in our garden this year. A crumble is super easy to make and tastes great and the use of home grown nashis added an interesting taste and talking point to our dinner compared the traditional apple crumble.

Nashi Filling:

Ingredients: 

• 4 or 5 full size nashis
• Appropriate sweetener (I used 2 tablespoons of Raw Earth monk fruit and stevia sweetener which you use at about the same rate as you would use white sugar) 
• 1/2 cup of water

Method:

•  Peel and core nashis and cut into eighths
• Place into medium sized saucepan and add water and sweetener
• Bring to vigorous simmer on medium heat until nashis soften a little but still have a little "give" when poked with a fork (nashis will generally take longer to reach this state than usual cooking apples)
• Layer stewed nashi in a 2 litre casserole dish and smooth the top so that the crumble can be laid on it 

Crumble Topping:

(this recipe is actually a variation on one that came from my Father's old cooking notes from his cooking class in the first year of high school. I found you need to add a little more flour than what is mentioned below to get a good texture in the crumble. I just added this as I carried out the rubbing in process)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of self raising flour (I used white spelt flour with the recommended amount of baking power as specified on the baking powder container)
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 4 tablespoons of butter 
• 1/ cup of brown sugar

Method:

• Sift flour and cinnamon into a bowl
• Rub in butter until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs
• Add brown sugar and mix thoroughly
• I also added a little toasted muesli from some crunch
• Sprinkle over nashi
• Bake in a 190 degree Celsius oven until golden brown (about 30 minutes)
• Serve with ice cream or custard  

New Methods Learnt:

• Rubbing in butter

Result:

Delicious - definitely a quick thing to do which I'll keep trying and perfecting.