Summer Fruit Crumble

Summer dessert is always a good thing with this delicious summer fruit crumble made with fresh strawberries, cherries and blueberries, just throw in whatever fresh berries you have available! A sumptuous berry syrupy sauce is found beneath the crisp crumble topping and fruit layer.

I don’t know about you but I love summer fruit with all those fresh strawberries, raspberries, cherries, blackcurrants, redcurrants available at a lower price, as well as peaches, nectarines, plums bountiful in the shops.

It is so good to snack on as it is but also lovely in all kind of simple summer desserts like this one.

Jump to:

• Fruit picking
• Ingredients
• Step by step
• Serving
• Recipe variations
• Recipe tips
• FAQ
• More to try
• Recipe

Fruit picking

A summer dessert is simple when you put together a classic fruit crumble with a summery twist!

If you can pick your own berries near where you live, at a farm or similar, then you can also make a day of it, picking the fruit as a family, then cooking your crumble together and eating it later on.

And if the summer weather isn’t great – a typical British summertime of rain perhaps! – a bowl of warm crumble will bring back childhood memories and warm you up nicely.

Ingredients

• fresh berries – I’ve used strawberries, cherries and blueberries here, you can use whatever berries you have on hand like raspberries, blackcurrants, blackberries, redcurrants and so on, to make it really summery.
• granulated sugar – I use a little granulated sugar to sweeten up the berries.
• butter – I use unsalted, cold straight from the fridge. salted will work fine too.
• plain flour (all purpose flour) – For crumbles always use plain flour, as you don’t want the crumble topping to rise.
• demerara sugar – Demerara sugar is a light brown raw cane sugar used in crumble recipes for the lovely crunch it provides. In the USA look for turbinado sugar, which is made in a similar way and can be used in place of demerara. Alternatively you could use light brown sugar.

Step by step

1. Preheat your oven to 180°C (350°F).
2. Rinse your berries, prepare by removing stalks/stones and slice them up. Place them in a large pie dish or ceramic oven dish.

3. Sprinkle the fruit with the granulated sugar.

4. In another bowl, measure out the plain flour, then cube the cold butter and add it in with the flour.

5. Using your fingertips, lightly rub the butter into the flour until it has the texture of medium-fine breadcrumbs.

6. Stir in the demerara sugar.

7. Sprinkle your crumble topping over the fruit in your dish, as evenly as you can.

8. Bake for 30-35 minutes until the top of the crumble is golden and the juices start to ooze out of the fruit around the sides of the dish.

Serving

While fruit crumble is delicious on its own, it is also of course wonderful served with ice cream, whipped cream, or custard!

I like to put the baking dish in the middle of the table so everyone can help themselves, it makes a great easy summer dessert for families.

Recipe variations

Switch the fruit – use all strawberries for a delicious strawberry crumble, a combination of rhubarb and strawberries for rhubarb and strawberry crumble, chopped apple and strawberries for apple and strawberry crumble, all raspberries for a deliciously tart raspberry crumble, or include some chopped apple and make apple and raspberry crumble, or use all kinds of summer berries for a tasty berry crumble.

Add some rolled oats (porridge oats) and your favourite chopped nuts (pecans, hazelnuts, almonds are tasty) in with the crumble topping for added crunch.

Frozen fruit – you can certainly make crumble using frozen berries. To avoid water being released as the berries defrost, try not to leave the fruit out for too long before cooking the crumble, as this could make the dish watery and soggy.

Recipe tips

• Make sure you use your butter direct from the fridge, cold. If you rub soft butter into flour you’ll end up with a stodgy mess.
• Rub the butter into the flour with your fingertips, lightly until the mixture resembles the texture of coarse breadcrumbs.
• Sprinkle the crumble topping over the fruit in your dish so it remains light and not too heavy.
• The crumble topping is ready when it turns golden.
• Another sign your summer crumble is ready to come out of the oven is when you can see the juices from the berries oozing out of the sides of the dish from underneath.
• If you include strawberries, they can lose some of their vivid red colour during cooking and turn light pink, this is just an effect from cooking them, they’ll still taste amazing!

FAQ

More to try

Did you know you can make an apple crumble in your slow cooker?

Blackberry crumble is another favourite for late summer and early autumn.

Berry sponge pudding is a great alternative to crumble with a layer of sponge cake over fresh or frozen berries, so easy too.

Recipe