• Big, juicy berries and sweet plums are cooked in their own juices and taste delicious with the added crunch of nuts in the crumble. Serve it with your favourite ice cream or custard. Berries pack a punch when it comes to nutrition, and they make a fab impression on your summer table.

    Recipe by Illanique van Aswegen

    Photograph by Adel Ferreira

    Blueberry, plum and strawberry vanilla crumble

    Serves: 4
    Cooking Time: 40 mins

    Ingredients

    • FRUIT

    • 120g blueberries
    • 180g strawberries, halved
    • 200g plum wedges
    • 30ml (2 tbsp) sugar
    • 10g (1 tbsp) butter
    • 30ml (2 tbsp) water
    • seeds from ½ vanilla pod
    • CRUMBLE

    • 80ml cake flour
    • 80ml ground almonds
    • 30ml (2 tbsp) brown sugar
    • seeds from ½ vanilla pod
    • 30g (3 tbsp) butter, cubed
    • 80ml cashews
    • 60ml (¼ cup) whole almonds
    • vanilla pod ice cream, to serve

    Instructions

    1

    Preheat the oven to 180°C.

    2

    For the fruit, place all of the ingredients in a saucepan and heat gently for 5 minutes. Stir until the sugar has dissolved. Transfer the mixture to an ovenproof serving dish.

    3

    To make the crumble, combine the flour, ground almonds, sugar and vanilla in a mixing bowl. Use your fingertips to rub the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Stir in the cashews and almonds. Scatter this on top of the fruit mixture.

    4

    Bake the crumble until golden and crisp, 20 – 25 minutes. Serve warm with your favourite vanilla ice cream.

    Notes

    Try different fruit combinations like strawberries and apples, blueberries and pears or guavas and raspberries.

    Imka Webb
    Author

    Imka Webb is a freelance digital marketing expert and the digital editor of Food & Home Entertaining magazine.  www.imkawebb.com