PEAR & BLACKBERRY CRUMBLE

Growing up, I was very close to my beloved grandmother, whom I call Nanny Kay. She was everything to me: a close friend, a confidant, a second mother. She loved fruit crumbles, and I think of her every time I make this recipe!

Fruit crumbles are so easy and delicious. The flexibility of ingredients means you can usually whip one up with what you already have in your pantry. My secret is to use half canned fruit and half fresh fruit, to improve the texture while cutting the cooking and prep time. You can also customize the crumble by adding nuts or crunchy breakfast cereal! I also love to make these into individual crumbles - just lessen the cooking time!

INGREDIENTS

3-4 pears, diced

1 can pears in syrup, sliced (reserve 2 tbsp of syrup for the dish)

1 package blackberries

1 ½ cups flour

1 cup light brown sugar

½ tsp cinnamon

10 tbsp salted butter

Vanilla ice cream

PREPARATION

1.     Preheat the oven to 350˚

2.     Wash and peel the pears and slice into chunks.

3.     Lightly butter a deep baking dish (try a deep round 9” inch baking dish for the best result)

4.     Add the pears and blackberries and 2 tbsp of the pear syrup to the dish and sprinkle lightly with the apple pie spice or cinnamon.

5.     In a large mixing bowl, add the flour, butter and brown sugar together.

6.     Using your hands (clean please haha!) mix the flour, butter and sugar together until it forms a crumbly topping. Don’t overmix as you want some crunchy chunky bits too. Sometimes you’ll need to add a touch more butter or flour, depending on the consistency – you want it crumbly but still quite moist.

7.     Sprinkle the crumble topping over the fruit until all of the fruit is covered.

8.     Bake for 45 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

9.     Serve with ice cream and enjoy!