Rhubarb and blueberry crumble

… or ‘Gruffalo crumble’ as, well, pretty much any crumble in our house in known as far as my toddler is concerned. 

My Nana once said to me that you can’t mess up a crumble, but I have had a few occasions where my slapdash approach has meant the fruit wasn’t quite cooked enough, or the topping too floury. This was mainly due to throwing ingredients together without any attempt at measuring.

This is the way I like to cook, but for the purposes of passing this recipe on (which I dreamt up and made for the first time today) the approximate amounts are suggested below. By all means take a guess if you are good at estimating amounts though; my Nana’s right, it is fairly difficult to mess a crumble up. 

Serves: 6 adults
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 40 minutes 
Total time: 50 minutes

Ingredients: For the filling:
400g rhubarb, chopped into roughly 1 inch pieces
2 tablespoons of water
2 tablespoons of sugar 
250g of blueberries, fresh or frozen 

For the crumble mixture:
280g plain flour
170g sugar (I used golden caster but normal or light brown would work too)
200g butter 
Pinch of salt (about 1/2 teaspoon)

Instructions: 

1. Preheat oven to 180C. I used a 23cm round baking dish. Any medium sized pie dish would do.
2. Chop the rhubarb and then cook it gently in a pan with the water and sugar for 10 minutes or so. 
3. Make the crumble either by rubbing the butter (dropped into the flour into small, cube like, pieces) into the flour ‘to resemble breadcrumbs’ as they always say. It doesn’t have to be perfect; in fact larger pieces of butter, I think, give a crusty and uneven effect – but not too large. Or use a food processor to whizz together; you’ll get a finer result doing this. Add the sugar, mix, and that’s it. 
4. Simply pour in part-cooked rhubarb, sprinkle berries over top, mix a little, and then tip the crumble mix on. You may be left with a bit of crumble mix depending on what size dish you have used, but I don’t mind this. In fact it’s normally the perfect amount for an individual apple crumble later on in the week!
5. Bake for 40 minutes. I like crumble after sitting to cool for half an hour, so it’s perfect if you can manage your timing to take it out when your main (if having it as a dessert) is ready. Enjoy with lashings of custard or cream.