My friends Mark and Bruce at Real Food Has Curves create some truly delicious recipes.
In the past I’ve blogged about their Paris-Brest ring, baked numerous batches of their figgy rolls, and eaten copious quantities of their caramelized leek tabbouleh. Mark’s recent Apricot Rhubarb Crisp inspired me to make a version using the frozen berries we’d bought in Marrickville recently.
The great thing about this recipe is its simplicity – the topping comes together with a stir (because it uses nut oil instead of butter), and the fruit is simply chopped and combined. It’s so easy, in fact, that I’ve made it twice in the past week – once to try it out, and then a second time as a dinner party dessert.
My version is sweeter than Mark’s, and uses hazelnuts instead of pecans in the topping. I was excited to discover blanched roasted hazelnuts at Southern Cross Supplies – in the past I’ve avoided buying hazelnuts because I couldn’t be bothered skinning them. I know it’s not a difficult process, but it makes such a mess!
Topping:
- 60g plain (AP) flour
- 45g rolled oats
- 70g brown sugar
- 60g chopped blanched hazelnuts
- 60g hazelnut oil
- 30ml maple syrup
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- pinch fine sea salt
Note: I used my scales to weigh out the ingredients, but Mark also has cup measures listed in his post.
1. Combine all the topping ingredients in a large bowl and stir until evenly moistened. Preheat oven to 175C with fan.
2. Fill a large roasting pan (I used my new Emile Henry dish) with an assortment of chopped fruits and berries – I used some of our new season rhubarb, about 500g of frozen berries, four peeled and chopped Bilpin Pink Lady apples, and some frozen cherries that I found in the freezer.
3. Sprinkle a tablespoon of cornflour over the fruit and sweeten with some plain or vanilla sugar, then stir gently to combine.
4. With your hands, crumble the topping over the fruit. It won’t cover the fruit completely, which is fine, because the topping is quite rich and needs a fair bit of fruit to balance it out.
5. Bake for 35 – 40 minutes, until the fruit is bubbling and the topping is, as the name suggests, crisp.
We accompanied ours with microwave custard, and the batch served six adults, with leftovers.
PS. I forgot to mention that this is a great do-ahead dessert. I baked the one below mid-afternoon, and then left it on the bench until evening. It only required a few minutes in the oven to reheat!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
I am so in love with this recipe. H’nut sounds cruncy in this luscious crisp :)
Thanks Tes! The nuts really make this recipe – Mark uses pecans and pecan oil in his, but I didn’t have any, plus our son is allergic to walnuts and pecans!
I am with you on the hazelnut peeling – probably the job I despise THE most in the kitchen. It does make a mess, those things fly everywhere… (sigh)
Lovely recipe, Celia, the photo is beautiful too…
Sally, thanks, I’m glad someone understands. Honest, we’re not just being lazy.. ;-)
I love the sound of that topping as an alternative to the usual crumble topping with butter. As it’s nearly mid-summer here, I’ll have to keep it in mind until we have cooler weather.
Your fruit mixture sounds good too!
Suelle, it might be good for your recent experiments in cutting butter out – the oats and nuts would be a healthy alternative too!
I love the sound of this, the hazelnut oil sounds interesting too, don’t think I’ve come across that before. No wonder you cooked this twice in one week Celia, it really does look the business to me :)
Thanks Anna! The hazelnut oil is a recent discovery from Chefs’ Warehouse. I’m sure other nut oils would work as well, but it seemed serendipitous to have both hazelnut oil and hazelnuts in the house at the same time for this recipe! :)
I looks delicious with the custard…I am going to go visit this blog..love the name…thanks!
Norma, thank you! Do visit Real Food Has Curves – the recipes are great, and it’s a fabulous read! :)
I have no idea what I’m cooking for dinner tonight, but dessert looks sorted :-)
B, I think the topping is very versatile and will go on almost any fruit combo. What did you bring back from Eveleigh Markets? ;-)
Looks truly delicious! I’ve never purchased any kind of nut oil before, though. Not sure how I would use it up if I bought some. I do have lots of frozen berries that do need used up before this year’s berries are ready to pick. I like your hazelnut theme. Hubby loves them and he would approve of them in the topping, pecans not so much.
Melanie, I wonder if you could substitute a neutral oil for the nut oil? I think a grapeseed or something like that might work? The nut oil is nice, but I think most of the flavour is coming from the hazelnuts, sugar and maple syrup.
Ou la la – I am in love with this recipe Celia. It reminds me of apple crumble, except. BETTER. And I LOVE Rhubarb, even though a lot of people including my other half, don’t. So I secretly indulge on it by myself. Might have to bookmark this lil number for this week!!!
:)
Thanks Dakota! Hope you like it.. :)
Oh my, that looks delicious. My son is visiting, he will love that.
Thanks Deb, I hope he really does love it! It’s so easy to make – apart from chopping the nuts, there’s no butter-rubbing required or anything else… :)
How yummy with the nuts in the topping! I have wasted many hours roasting and then shaking/brushing/sifting/rolling in teatowels to loosen/washing….. those stubborn hazlenut skins. They end up everywhere so I don’t blame you for avoiding them!
Becca, I’m grateful for yours and Sally’s comment – I thought it was just me being a lazy sod, but honestly, the stuff would go everywhere! I wonder if you could work this recipe into a gf version? Can we get gf oats here? I think I once read somewhere that they were, but might still be a problem for gluten-intolerants…
Celia this is perfect. Yesterday I got a huge box of apples for $3 and am going to make your pectin with them. I’ve already started chopping and reserved the flesh to make a crumble for dessert on Sunday (we’re having some friends over).
I’m with you on the hazelnut shelling, but I think it is a little bit of effort too.
Claire, thanks love, hope you enjoy it! If you don’t want to process the hazelnuts, I’m pretty sure Mark’s pecan version would be a winner – we just have to avoid them for Small Man.
Oh it looks so deliciously warming. A perfect winter dinner party dessert and lets forget all the other other ingredients and say because its got fruit – its totally healthy ;)
Nic, oh totally healthy, with fruit, and nuts, and oats – almost makes up for the sugar.. ;-)
I can only agree with everyone else – that looks absolutely delicious. And I love rhubarb – can’t get enough of it!
Thanks Dave – are you growing rhubarb? We planted three crowns last year, and it’s been growing like mad! Would b even better in your climate!
That looks so yummy! Definitely have to try that.
I am a relative newcomer to your blog and I just wanted to say thank you for so much information! I have started my own sourdough starter and made some semi-leavened loaves out of it so far, which everyone loves. I am about to try straight sourdough.
I have noticed you freeze a lot of bread, rolls and scrolls and then pull them out when needed, for lunches and the like. May I ask your process for this? For example, how do you wrap before putting in the freezer? In plastic wrap, in ziplocks, in foil? And do you slice the bread before freezing? Also, when it is for the kids lunches, do you defrost them or get them out the night before or are they fine by lunch time straight from the freezer? Do they get soggy at all?
So many questions! I just thought it would be worth asking someone who has been doing this for a while before I plunge right in. If you have already asked these questions, please just direct me to the right place. Thanks again for a great wealth of information and inspiration.
Leah, thanks for stopping by! Good on you for creating your own sourdough starter – I’ve never managed to do that successfully.
I freeze almost all the bread we make. Nothing too fancy – I just pop them into freezer bags, exclude as much air as I can, and stick them into the freezer. With the scrolls for Small Man’s lunch, I divide them up into singles, then put two into a small freezer bag, and then all the smaller bags into one large bag. That way he can just get out two for lunch when he gets up in the morning.
I don’t generally slice bread before freezing, but I have done in the past. At the moment though, Small Man is eating a loaf a day (apart from lunch and his other meals), so I get a small ciabatta out each afternoon before he comes home from school. Sliced bread is fine in the freezer if you just want to take out a slice or two for toast – best though to wait until the loaf is completely cool, or the frozen slices can stick together.
In regard to school lunches – we take the scrolls out of the freezer, put the plastic bag into a brown paper bag, and pop it straight into the school bag. No defrosting required, and it all seems to be fine by lunch time. If I’m making sandwiches, I do partially defrost the loaf in the microwave (just for 30secs to a minute) so that I can slice it. We haven’t had a problem with soggy bread yet!
Hope this all makes sense! :)
Thanks so much, Celia!
Celia, that dessert does look so yum and …’so good for you’:) Home made with love and care – how could it not be.
Hehehe… thanks Jan, “so good for us”, I kept chanting that as the spoon kept scooping up extra serves.. ;-)
Sounds SO good! Can’t stand messing with hazelnuts either…what a find with the blanched offerings! This looks very tempting indeed, Celia :)
Chris, it’s opened up a world of possibilities! I have a stack of recipes which I’ve avoided over the years because I couldn’t stand having hazelnut skin everywhere! :)
Haha so true! Hazelnut skinning is up there with transcribing. Both things I loathe to do! :P Thanks for the heads up on the shop! :D
L, it’s not really a shop, but a wholesaler with a shop front. I don’t think they do small scale mailorder, but you can rock up and buy anything you want over the counter. All sorts of treasure in there! :)
I adore crumble and I’m not really au fait with a ‘crisp’ but it sounds as though I’d like it. I’m thinking almonds with almond oil here too. With custard of course (my Mother-in-law makes her excellent custard in the microwave too).
Sally, I think the American crisp is like a thin crumble with some oats in the topping.
Small Man made chocolate custard tonight in the microwave, and then poured it into the icecream maker to make chocolate icecream. He’s feeling very pleased with himself! :)
Oh I love this! The ingredients are just perfect!
Thanks Maria! Hope you get a chance to make it! :)
Celia, it’s gorgeous! It’s all about the crunch-factor for me. And you’re right: skinning hazelnuts is a pain. I love the packs of them already done. And love their addition here. I wonder, too, about other nut/nut oil pairings possible. Wonder what pistachios would do. Hmmm, may have to make that a project in the next couple of days.
Mark, it’s a magnificent recipe, thank you! I know you like it sour, but the topping was fantastic with mixed berries!
Tasty! I love hazelnuts and berries are in season here. We’ve been nibbling tiny strawberries from the yard.
Maz
Lucky you, Maz! Our strawberries are going all soggy and rotting in the rain! Must figure out where the best place is to grow them…
Hey Celia!!!
Well, guess what. Tonight when my other half was cooking, I decided it was time for a nice ‘something’ to have after dinner. I had frozen cherries in the fridge, and everything in your list, except for the oil, rhubard and nuts, and maple syrup. I changed it by adding walnut, grape seed oil and… Manuka honey from NZ. Was delicious!!! Cooked it in the oven and had it with a rich vanilla ice cream, from a French shop here in Bordeaux. Whole thing was absolutely delicious. Amazing to have great flavors from a few simple baked ingredients. THANK YOU.
p.s Anddddd… You’ll laugh. I had your blog window in the kitchen taking notes ;)
Have a great weekend.
Dakota, you’re a legend, thank you for trying it out! So glad you liked it! :) Hope you have a great weekend too!
Hello Celia,
Yesterday I was lucky enough to go to Ben Furney’s Flour Mill,
http://balmoralparkgarden.blogspot.com/
even though I live in this region I had never heard of it until reading about the flour on your blog. So, many thanks.
Anne
Anne, lucky you! :) I’ve just been reading your post about it – sounds like there was some real treasure to be had in the BF shop!
Oh WOW….. I love crisps/crumbles…. let alone with hazelnuts…
Craig, you’d love this – wish you could have been here to help us eat them! :)