Recipe: Crumble-topped Pear & Almond Slice

Another week, another recipe to use up what's lurking around my fridge. This week, pears.

After getting Ruby Tandoh's book Crumb the other week I've bookmarked a few recipes to try. You may remember rye & caraway bagels, they went down very well. This recipe is essentially a sweet bread topped with honeyed pears, almonds and crumble. Great with a steaming mug of coffee for breakfast.

Although there was no picture in the book, it did state to roll out to a rectangular shape...I went for more of a pizza slice, no one complained!

Crumble-topped pear & almond slice
(Recipe from Ruby Tandoh's Crumb, serves 8).

300g strong white flour
1 1/2 tsp instant yeast
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp honey
190ml milk

For the pear topping:

4 firm dessert pears, such as Williams, Comice or Bosc (although I used Conference and they were fine)
30g unsalted butter
4 tbsp honey
1/4 tsp ground allspice
70g flaked almonds

For the crumble topping:

50g unsalted butter, room temperature
50g white flour
40g soft light brown sugar
30g flaked almonds, finely chopped

Combine the flour, yeast and honey together in a mixing bowl. In a small pan, heat the honey and milk on a low temperature until tepid. Pour into the dry ingredients, mix and knead for 5-10 minutes. The dough will become less sticky. Loosely cover with clingfilm and leave for an hour at room temperature. The dough will double in size.

Meanwhile, prepare the pears. Peel, core and slice. Melt the butter with honey and allspice on low in a large pan. Once melted, increase to a medium heat and add the pears to caramelised. They will soften and turn golden after 5 minutes if stirred regularly. If they start to disintegrate, remove from the heat. Stir in the flaked almonds and leave to cool.

For the crumble, rub together the butter, flour and sugar between your fingertips until the mixture clumps together. Add the chopped almonds and chill in the fridge.

Lightly flour a work surface and turn out the risen dough. Roll to around 20x30cm. Place on a large, lined baking tray and prove for 30-45 minutes. Heat the oven to 200 degrees.

Once proved, arrange the pears on the risen dough with a 1cm border. Sprinkle over the crumble and brush the edges with the leftover honey from the pears. Bake for 10 minutes. Turn the oven down to 180 degrees and bake for a further 20 minutes.

Blackberry and Cinnamon Cake

   Autumn/Winter has set in. Finally! I can't be dealing with hot sticky trains. Arriving to work in my summer clothes only to freeze under the air conditioning through an eight hour shift. I'm that excited for the colder climates, I've already purchased some winter staples. Staples such as 1 kg of mini marshmallows for all those hot chocolates and a bear onesie. Completely necessary of course.

   And so, in order to welcome chilly mornings and chilly toes, I decided to bake something cosy and warming. Cinnamon being one of my favourite spices, makes me feel a little festive. Like wearing my favourite cashmere winter scarf. But as its not quite winter enough, yet, and I can't get away with wearing it just yet, I baked a cake with cinnamon in.

  This cake could have been a disaster...I forgot to add a raising agent. It did have a lovely streusel topping with all the blackberries peaking out the top before baking. So, in a desperate attempt to salvage my efforts, I gave the cake batter-filled tin a sprinkling of baking powder. A quick stir, ruining that precious streusel, and a prayer to the raising gods á la Christine of the Great British Bake Off!

   Any cakes that resemble a pancake don't get featured on here. There have been one or two. But, as this one turned out to be a success, a surprising one...here it is. Complete with streusel topping in case you decide to bake it the regular way. And home grown blackberries!

Blackberry and Cinnamon Streusel Cake
(Adapted from a Nigella's community recipe)
     5 oz unsalted butter, softened
     5 oz superfine sugar
     5 oz ground almonds
     5 oz self raising flour
     1 egg
     1 tsp ground cinnamon
     2 tsp vanilla extract
     8 oz blackberries
     35 g plain flour
     25 g sugar
     25 g butter
     Icing sugar and cinnamon for dusting

• Heat the oven to 180 degrees and grease and line a 23 cm springform tin.
• Combine all the ingredients except the blackberries and beat well. Spread the mixture into the tin with a rubber spatula and then scatter the blackberries over.
• Make the streusel topping by rubbing together plain flour, sugar and butter and scatter over the blackberries.
• Bake for about 1 hour until golden and springy.
• Cool in the tin before adding a dusting of icing sugar and cinnamon.