Roasted Plum & Peanut Butter Crumble
There are some recipes that begin with a plan ... And then there are the ones that happen because you have eight deeply dark, beautifully ripe Victoria plums sitting in the kitchen and absolutely no intention of letting them go to waste ... This was very much the latter.
The plums were big, soft and properly ripe — the sort that practically collapse when you cut into them. I wanted to roast them gently and see what happened, so into the oven they went with a splash of orange juice, a little water and just one tablespoon of caster sugar. Nothing more complicated than that, and what came out was rather beautiful.
The plums had softened into a glorious, almost jewel-like puddle of deep magenta juice, with the faintest hint of orange sitting behind them. Not enough orange to make you think orange dessert, just enough to make the plums taste a little more themselves.
And then there was the crumble ...
I've been using the Kitchen Rules Peanut Butter Crumble, and I think I may have a problem now. It is nutty, salty, buttery, rich and properly crunchy, with just enough chewiness to make it interesting ... It's ridiculously good with roasted plums. The sweet-sharpness of the fruit cuts through all that rich, salty nuttiness, while the crumble brings texture to those soft, almost jammy plums.
I served it hot with good-quality vanilla custard, because some things really don't need improving. Although ... I do have a little custard trick. If, like my daughter, you are exceptionally particular about custard, take a good-quality supermarket tinned custard, warm it gently and add a splash of double cream and a little vanilla extract. Suddenly it feels rather more like you made it yourself. I'm not saying anyone needs to know, this can be our little secret.
The verdict?
The hot, sweet-sharp plums, the salty, nutty, buttery crumble, nd a frankly unapologetic amount of vanilla custard. It's a reallyu simple dessert, but it's the sort of simple food where everything is doing exactly what it needs to do ... And there has apparently been a family ruling ... No other crumble topping is now acceptable in this kitchen.
Roasted Plum & Peanut Butter Crumble - The Recipe
Serves 6–8
Ingredients
For the roasted plums
8 large, ripe Victoria plums
1 tbsp caster sugar
A good splash of orange juice
A small splash of water
For the peanut butter crumble
100g plain flour
40g quick-cook porridge oats
85g crunchy peanut butter
50g light brown soft sugar
50g caster sugar
85g unsalted butter, melted
A pinch of salt
To serve
Good-quality vanilla custard
Double cream and vanilla extract, if giving supermarket custard the Jo treatment
Method
Roast the plums
Preheat the oven to 180°C / 160°C fan / Gas 4.
Halve the plums and remove the stones. Place them in a shallow ovenproof dish.
Add a good splash of orange juice and a little water, then sprinkle over 1 tablespoon of caster sugar.
Roast for around 20–30 minutes, depending on how ripe your plums are. You're looking for the plums to become wonderfully soft and almost collapse, releasing their deep magenta juices into the dish.
Make the peanut butter crumble
While the plums are roasting, make the crumble. Put the flour, oats, light brown soft sugar, caster sugar and salt into a bowl and mix together.
Add the crunchy peanut butter and melted butter and rub or stir together until you have a rough, crumbly mixture. Don't worry about making every piece the same size. You want a mixture of little crumbs and larger, chunky pieces — those bigger nuggets are rather good.
Assemble and bake
Generously scatter the peanut butter crumble over the softened plums.
Return the dish to the oven and bake for a further 15–20 minutes, until the crumble is golden, crisp and bubbling around the edges.
Serve
Serve hot, with a generous amount of good-quality vanilla custard.
Jo's Kitchen Notes
Don't over-sugar the plums.
These Victoria plums were beautifully ripe and naturally sweet, but they also had that lovely sharpness that makes roasted plums so good. I used just 1 tablespoon of caster sugar for around eight large plums.
The orange juice is a background player. You don't want this to taste like orange and plum.
The orange is there to add a little something-something and, more importantly, it helps create that gorgeous syrup as the fruit roasts.
Save the juice. Honestly, this is probably my biggest note. If you've got beautiful fruit roasting in beautiful juice, taste it before you throw it away. I saved some of mine to reduce for my Plum & Orange Meringue Shards, and it worked beautifully.
And the crumble? I followed my Kitchen Rules Peanut Butter Crumble recipe pretty much as written, although it is wonderfully forgiving if your quantities aren't absolutely precise. Which is handy. Because I don't believe crumble should involve scales and spreadsheets.
You want enough peanut butter crumble to generously cover the fruit and give you plenty of those lovely crunchy, nutty bits.
And once you've tried peanut butter crumble with roasted plums... Well. Apparently, ordinary crumble is no longer welcome in this house, so make this at your own risk!
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