Peach & plum breakfast crumble
Remember how much I love recipes that you can make ahead of time? Well this is another great example especially because I chose to serve this breakfast crumble cold; I didn't even have to reheat it in the morning!
This recipe keeps very well in the fridge and made for many happy breakfast mornings. While it's not overly sweet, I kind of felt like I was getting to eat dessert for breakfast; trust me, no one's going to complain about that.
The original recipe called for apricots, but I like the combination of peaches and plums better. As Smitten suggests, you can also use pears or apples (or a combination of both) but you'll need to cut the pieces smaller and bake for a bit longer (closer to 45 minutes, and you may want to cover the pan in foil to prevent it from browning too much).
If you have turbinado sugar (aka Sugar in the Raw), I highly recommend using it in this recipe - it really makes a difference in the crumble. I doubled the recipe below to make two pans so your cooking time might be less if you're just doing one.
I omitted the almonds since I can't eat nuts, but I'm sure this would be delicious with some slivered almonds. One adaptation I made, which I highly recommend, is to brown the butter. Since I am allergic to nuts, this is a really nice way to impart some nutty flavors. If you're short on time, you can omit this step but after you taste it with browned butter, I think you'll agree that the extra minutes are totally worth it.
Peach & plum breakfast crumble
Adapted from the Smitten Kitchen cookbook
Level: Easy
Time: About 50 minutes
Ingredients
Fruit
1 pound mixture of peaches and plums
2 tablespoons turbinado sugar (regular granulated would work, too)
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
Topping
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/3 cup turbinado sugar (regular works too, but this really adds a nice crunch)
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup all purpose flour
Pinch of salt
Yogurt, to serve with the crumble
Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Slice the peaches and plums - no need to be extra thin here. I sliced each half of fruit into four segments.
Place the fruit in a small baking dish (I used 1 quart dishes); stir in the sugar, flour, and nutmeg.
Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium low heat. You want to develop browned bits in the butter but you do not want to burn it - trust me the line between browned and burnt is very thin so just stay near the pot during this step. The butter will melt, then foam, then turn a clearish-golden color before it starts to develop little brown bits at the bottom of the pan. It will smell nutty as well. This is when you have reached the perfect stopping point (this process will take several minutes).
In the pot of browned butter, first stir in the sugar, then the oats, followed by both flours, and finally the salt. Stop stirring when large clumps begin to form.
Sprinkle this mixture over the fruit and bake for about 35 minutes (see my note above that this was the cooking time for two pans; you should check yours around 30 minutes if you're just doing one pan). Be sure to rotate the pans halfway through cook time for even baking.
You can serve this warm or chilled (I chose to chill mine) with a drizzling/scooping of your favorite yogurt on top.
Mangia!