Strawberry Crumble and Custard

It's my BIRTHDAY! And, instead of a traditional cake, I present to you my latest food favourite.

You might say that I have a slightly obsessive personality. When I find a TV show I love I will watch old episodes over and over. When I hear a song I like I have been known to sing along on repeat for like an hour.

So too, with cooking. I find a recipe that I just love, and you better believe we’ll be eating it twice a week until my boyfriend begs for variety. And that is what I have done here, so there’s a good few photos from different forays into this crumble.

Individual version

Heart shaped version

Oval version

This crumble is AMAZING. I always feel guilty when I buy strawberries because it always seems like there’s a few bruised or hard ones left over that I don’t want to eat and end up throwing out. In this recipe, they are transformed into juicy, flavoursome bursts of summer. And the crumble on top is so nice that I pretty much use double what was suggested by the original recipe because, while fruit is nice, I am all about the crumble.

Never will you need to ditch those sad little strawbs again! And again, I have Nigella to thank. She’s got my back.

This is a double whammy post, brought to you by my two fave ladies, because the custard part is courtesy of Mary Berry.

She’s pretty much infallible, so of course she was the one I turned to when I wanted a classic, foolproof custard recipe. Custard from scratch isn’t so hard, it’s all about the heat. Keep it gentle, don’t let it boil! 

Honestly, I’m not a principled person in general. But I have my standards. And my standards basically consist of: don’t use premade custard. There’s no excuse for the packet stuff when it’s so simple to whip up a fresh, creamy batch of silky loveliness.

serves 4

Ingredients for the crumble filling

• 250g strawberries, halved or quartered
• 30g caster sugar
• 15g ground almonds
• 1 tbsp vanilla sugar

Ingredients for the crumble topping

• 110g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 75g diced cold butter
• 50g ground almonds
• 30g demerera sugar
• 30g caster sugar
• 10g vanilla sugar
• ½ tsp cinnamon

Ingredients for the custard

• 275ml milk
• 30ml double cream
• ½ tsp vanilla sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 tsp cornflour                 

Method

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.

Begin with the crumble. Hull and slice the strawberries and place them in the dish you’re using.

In individual dishes

A bigger dish

Sprinkle over the sugar, almonds and vanilla and shake to coat the strawberries in the dry ingredients.

Yet another dish, another time I've made it,

To make the topping, mix the flour and baking powder, and then rub in the butter with your fingers until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs.

Stir in the sugar, ground almonds, and cinnamon.

Tip the crumble topping evenly over the strawberries.

Bake for 25-30 minutes depending on the size of your dish, until the crumble topping is golden.

Let stand for 10 minutes before digging in.

While the baked crumble is resting, get started on the custard.

Place the milk and cream into a non stick pot and bring to a slow simmer over a medium-low heat.

Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks, sugar, vanilla sugar and cornflour.

Pour over the milk, whisking all the time.

Then transfer back into the pot and over a low heat, gently stir until thickened.

Pour over the crumble and serve immediately. 

This will fly out of the kitchen as if on wings.

It's food perfection.