A British summer classic dessert, fruity slightly sharp gooseberry crumble with a lovely crunchy topping.
Grandads Cookbook is a collection of recipes from various sources reproduced here for convenience. Recipes are accredited to their original author where known and links are provided to any online source materials.
Produce From My Allotment
This recipe is one from my allotment produce collection. I try and grow as many of my favourite fruits and vegetables as possible. Fresh veg is packed full of goodness and just tastes better than shop-bought produce. Pick some sweetcorn or green beans for example and cook them within an hour or two, they taste amazing, sweet and crunchy. You can’t beat it.
I have collected together recipes which I think will bring out the best of my homegrown salad, fruit and vegetables. Just remember to wash and prepare your produce thoroughly before cooking and/or eating it. As the old saying goes “there is only one thing worse than finding a maggot in an apple and that is finding half a maggot”.
It’s that time of year when all the soft fruits on my allotment are ripening and that includes my all time favourite, the gooseberry.
And what’s the best thing to make with freshly picked gooseberries? No not jam, a classic British dessert the gooseberry crumble.
I like it hot out of the oven with a few scoops of vanilla ice cream but served with hot or cold custard is great as well!
Fresh vs Frozen
Don’t worry if you can’t get hold of fresh gooseberries or they are out of season. Gooseberries freeze well and frozen ones will give you a lovely dessert just slightly softer.
Gooseberry Crumble
Ingredients
To Make:
- 500 g gooseberry topped and tailed
- 85 g golden caster sugar
- 175 g plain flour
- 75 g demerara sugar
- 85 g salted butter chilled
To Serve:
- ice cream optional
- custard optional
Conversions
Instructions
To Make:
- Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan 160C/Gas 4.Toss the gooseberries with the caster sugar, spread in the bottom of a medium ovenproof baking dish with 2 tbsp water.
- To make the crumble, put the flour, butter and a big pinch of salt in a bowl. Rub together with your fingertips until you have a rough breadcrumb texture. Mix in the demerera sugar.
- Scatter the crumble topping evenly over the gooseberries. Bake in the oven for 45-50 minutes until top is pale golden and crunchy and the gooseberries bubbling. You can also give the crumble a quick flash under a hot grill to give the top an extra browning if you like.
To Serve:
- Serve with a few scoops of vanilla ice cream or custard
You may also like one of my other favourite recipes …
Grandads Cookbook may reference or include sections of text and images reproduced courtesy of:
- BBC Good Food Team
- Little Sugar Snaps