Gruffalo Crumble

Rainy Day Mum caught my attention recently with a project they are doing called Around The World in Twelve Dishes. It seemed like a great idea, firstly because I like teaching our Girls about The World: we have family overseas so the more they understand about different countries, the better. Secondly, I grew up an ex-pat brat so travelled around a great deal until I met my Domestic God. And thirdly because we are currently trying to teach LBG her address and consequently, her ‘place’ in the World.

But the best thing of all is that the 12-month journey is kicking off in the UK. Growing up overseas, but in the Community of the Armed Forces, I had a very strong sense of Britishness, albeit an interpretation dependent on what could be sourced locally. I distinctly recall a dinner party being arranged because someone had come to visit with 2kg of parsnips, unknown to locals at the time. And there was the time that a delivery of furniture arriived in Cairo from the UK with a dozen crates of Boddingtons on the back. Some of those crates lived in my parents bedroom for months, covered in a white sheet, until they were slowly consumed.

Things that remind me of ‘home’ are PG tips (not that I drink tea, but Mum always managed to have a stock) Marmite, Baked Beans and Red Leicester. recipes that remind me of home are anything that can be served with custard. In this instance, crumble.

This particular crumble is named after a creature that LBG spent quite some time learning about in the run-up: The Gruffalo. Now I have searched the internet, so I know that there is an ‘official’ crumble recipe. It’s savoury however and I know that unless it was smothered in tomato ketchup and buried under sausages, there’s very little chance of getting past the Domestic God’s lips, never mind The Little Misses. So, taking my lead from the mouse who took a stroll in the wood, this recipe is made with those fruits that you can find in a wood.

Gruffalo Crumble

Serves six

2 apples, peeled cored and diced

1kg mixed fruits (we used frozen blackberries, cherries and other berries picked and frozen last year)

2 tbsp Vanilla Sugar

2 tbsp Apple Juice

200g plain flour (you can also use 100g flour and 100g oats)

100g butter

75g sugar

2 tbsp demerara sugar

1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Arrange your fruits in a large ovenproof dish, then sprinkle over the apple juice and vanilla sugar
3. In a bowl, mix flour (or flour/oat mix) and sugar. Add cubed butter and, using your fingers, squidge butter and flour together until the mixture resembles sand.
4. Spread flour mixture over the fruit and level out. Sprinkle with demerara sugar.
5. Bake for 30 minutes, or until golden and bubbling.
6. Serve with lashings of custard. Or Owl Ice-Cream

 

And whilst our Gruffalo dish was in the oven, LBG got busy colouring in her Gruffalo mask to wear whilst eating it.