Chef Thomas
Apple Charlotte
Buttered bread baked to a deep mahogany around a filling of spiced Bramley apples, turned out at the table in a small moment of drama, cold cream poured from a jug alongside.
Culinary Explorer
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Pear and Ginger Crumble
Created by Chef Thomas
A warm October crumble of Conference pears and stem ginger under a brown sugar topping, the kind of pudding that makes a Sunday evening feel like somewhere you want to be.
Desserts
British
Comfort Food
20 min
Active Time
40 min cook•1 hr total
Yield6 servings
October is pear weather. The apples have had all of September and they'll come back round when you want them, but for a few weeks now the pears are the thing. Conference, mostly. Knobbly, greenish-brown, unbeautiful in the way that the best fruit often is. I bring them home from the market on Saturday and sit them on the windowsill until they give just slightly when I press the neck with my thumb. That's when they're ready.
This is the pudding I make with them. Not the only one, but the one I come back to. The pears go into the dish with chopped stem ginger and a bit of its syrup, something sharp from the lemon, and then the whole thing disappears under a crumble topping that crisps up over forty minutes in a moderate oven. The smell, about halfway through, is what sells it. Brown sugar, warm ginger, the slightly floral note that cooked pears give off. The kitchen starts to feel occupied.
Serve it warm with cold cream. Or custard. I don't mind which. What I do mind is rushing it. A crumble needs to sit for ten minutes after it comes out of the oven so the juices thicken into that dark, sticky syrup at the bottom. If you spoon it out straight away, you'll get a good pudding. If you wait, you'll get a quietly splendid one.
I wrote it down in the notebook after the first time: "Pears. Ginger. October. Rain against the window." We're only making dinner, but some dinners mark themselves.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
Conference pears
Quantity
6
ripe but still firm, peeled, cored and cut into thick wedges
stem ginger in syrup
Quantity
3 balls
finely chopped
ginger syrup (from the jar)
Quantity
2 tablespoons
light brown sugar (for the fruit)
Quantity
1 tablespoon
lemon
Quantity
½
juiced
plain flour
Quantity
150g
cold unsalted butter
Quantity
100g
cubed
light brown sugar (for the crumble)
Quantity
75g
rolled oats
Quantity
50g
flaked almonds
Quantity
50g
ground ginger
Quantity
1 teaspoon
fine sea salt
Quantity
pinch
double cream or custard (optional)
Quantity
to serve
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| Conference pearsripe but still firm, peeled, cored and cut into thick wedges | 6 |
| stem ginger in syrupfinely chopped | 3 balls |
| ginger syrup (from the jar) | 2 tablespoons |
| light brown sugar (for the fruit) | 1 tablespoon |
| lemonjuiced | ½ |
| plain flour | 150g |
| cold unsalted buttercubed | 100g |
| light brown sugar (for the crumble) | 75g |
| rolled oats | 50g |
| flaked almonds | 50g |
| ground ginger | 1 teaspoon |
| fine sea salt | pinch |
| double cream or custard (optional) | to serve |
Equipment Needed
- •Shallow ceramic baking dish, around 25cm
- •Baking tray to catch drips
- •Wide mixing bowl for the crumble
- •Vegetable peeler
Instructions
- 1
Heat the oven and prepare the fruit
Set the oven to 180C/160C fan. Peel the pears, quarter them lengthways, and cut out the cores. Cut each quarter into two or three thick wedges. You want proper pieces that will hold their shape, not slices that collapse into mush. Tip them into a baking dish, something shallow and wide, ceramic if you've got it, about 25cm across.
Conference pears are the right pear for this. They hold their shape in the oven and have that slight graininess that stands up to the crumble. If yours are still rock hard from the shop, leave them on the windowsill for a day or two. Ripe but firm is the phrase. - 2
Dress the pears
Scatter the chopped stem ginger over the pears along with its syrup, the tablespoon of brown sugar, and the lemon juice. Give it all a gentle toss with your hands so every piece is coated. Don't be precious about it. The lemon keeps the pears from going brown and brightens the ginger. Taste a bit of the syrup that pools at the bottom. It should be sweet, warm, a little sharp. That's what the crumble is going to hide, so it needs to be worth finding.
- 3
Make the crumble
In a wide bowl, tip together the flour, ground ginger, and a pinch of salt. Add the cold cubed butter. Rub it in with your fingertips, lifting the mixture as you go so the butter gets cool air through it. Stop when it looks like rough breadcrumbs with a few larger pebbles of butter still visible. Those are the bits that will go properly crisp in the oven. Stir in the brown sugar, the oats, and the flaked almonds. A good crumble topping should feel slightly clumpy in your hand, not powdery.
Cold butter. I mean it. Soft butter turns the whole thing into a paste and you lose the crumble entirely. If your kitchen is warm, stick the butter back in the fridge for ten minutes before you start. - 4
Assemble and bake
Scatter the crumble over the pears in an even, generous layer. Don't press it down. Keep it loose so the steam from the fruit can work its way through. Put the dish on a baking tray (the juices will bubble up and you'll thank yourself for not having to scrub the oven). Bake for thirty-five to forty minutes, until the top is deep golden, the edges are bubbling up through the crumble in dark, sticky patches, and the kitchen smells of ginger and brown sugar and the kind of afternoon you don't want to end.
- 5
Rest and serve
Let it sit for ten minutes before you take it to the table. The juices need a moment to settle, otherwise you'll get a runny puddle on the plate instead of the thick, dark syrup you're after. Spoon it out while still warm into bowls, and pour cold double cream over the top so it melts a little at the edges. Custard is the other honest answer. Either is correct. Both is not out of the question.
Chef Tips
- •Stem ginger in syrup is worth keeping in the cupboard. A jar lasts months, and once you have one, you'll find yourself reaching for it: a spoonful into a bowl of yoghurt, a splash of the syrup over ice cream, a piece chopped into a cake. It earns its place.
- •The pears should be ripe but firm. A pear that gives too easily will turn to applesauce in the oven and the crumble will sit on top of a puddle. If your pears are underripe, give them a day or two on the windowsill. Patience is cheaper than regret.
- •If you want to make this for a crowd, double everything and bake it in a larger dish, but keep the crumble layer the same thickness. A deeper crumble doesn't crisp properly in the middle and you lose the contrast that makes the pudding work.
- •Cream or custard, your choice. But the cream should be cold and the pudding warm. The temperature contrast is half the pleasure. Pouring warm custard over warm crumble is fine, but pouring cold cream over it is better.
Advance Preparation
- •The crumble topping can be made a day ahead and kept in a container in the fridge. It actually improves for being properly cold when it hits the oven.
- •The fruit can be prepared a few hours ahead and kept covered in the dish, but don't let it sit overnight or the pears start to weep and go soft.
- •Leftovers keep for two days in the fridge and reheat well in a moderate oven for ten minutes. Cold crumble for breakfast, with a spoonful of yoghurt, is one of the quiet pleasures of having made too much.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 205g)
Calories
465 calories
Total Fat
19 g
Saturated Fat
9 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
8 g
Cholesterol
35 mg
Sodium
25 mg
Total Carbohydrates
72 g
Dietary Fiber
7 g
Sugars
38 g
Protein
6 g
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