An easy chocolate oat crumble that's a great compromise for a family dessert with fruit - the ultimate comfort-food with extra dark chocolate and lower in gluten than the classic crumble.
- 50 g (2oz) Ground Hazelnuts
- 50 g (2oz) Plain (all purpose) flour
- 75 g (3oz) medium oats (porridge oats)
- 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
- 100 g (4oz) butter unsalted
- 1 good pinch salt (fleur de sel)
- 40 g (1.5oz) soft light brown sugar (cane sugar)
- 10 g (0.5oz) unsalted butter
- 3 firm to ripe Large Williams or Comice pears peeled, cored, chopped
- 5-6 Granny Smith apples peeled, cored, chopped
- 10 g (0.5oz) vanilla sugar or cane sugar with 1/2 tsp vanilla powder
- 50 g (2oz) dark bittersweet chocolate (min 64%) (good quality, in button form or grated)
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Combine all the crumble ingredients in a large bowl, lightly rubbing through your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Set aside.
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Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/400°F/Gas 6.
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Peel, core and chop up the apples and pears roughly into chunks. Melt the butter in a large non-stick frying pan, toss in the fruit chunks and sprinkle over the vanilla sugar. Leave to cook over a medium heat, turning the apples and pears now and again, for about 5-8 minutes. The fruit should not be mushy, just lightly cooked. Drain off any excess fruit juice if there is any (set aside and reduce over medium heat to serve apart with the crumble later so that there's no waste).
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Transfer the fruit to a gratin or pudding dish (no need to butter it) and scatter over the dark chocolate. Sprinkle on a generous amount of crumble until the fruit and chocolate are completely covered.
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Bake for about 25 minutes, or until the top is toasted or lightly browned. Leave to cool slightly before serving.
Serve warm or at room temperature.
Replace the dark chocolate with milk chocolate according to taste.
We normally serve this chocolate hazelnut pear crumble on its own but if you prefer, add some vanilla ice cream, pouring cream or an adult boozy ice cream such as this non-churn Calvados ice cream (replace the Drambuie with Calvados).
Jill Colonna