What is Christmas without a good ol' fashion apple crumble to enjoy this festive season
Warm your home and the tummies of your loved ones this Christmas with this festive apple, rhubarb and pecan crumble recipe. Making this recipe in the cast-iron Staub La Cocotte ensures a perfectly cooked dessert every time. The Staub cocotte is extremely versatile as it can be easily moved from stovetop to oven. It also retains and equally distributes heat to evenly caramelise the fruit, leaving no hot spots. Additionally, the enamelled matte black interior brings out the natural flavour of your food and ensures your crumble comes out beautifully textural, tart, and tasty.
Cooking tips:
Your apple crumble will stay warm long after it's been taken from the oven or off the heat if you just pop the lid on after cooking.
Keep a close eye on cooking time – cooking time is extra fast due to the Staub La Cocotte's heat retention ability; this makes for a quick and easy dessert option.
Rhubarb is beautiful and in season in Queensland right now (spring/summer.) If not in season, opt for another fruit such as pear or seasonal berries. The possibilities are endless!
Don’t have pecans? Try almonds, macadamias or walnuts.
Ingredients
For the pecan crumble:
- 200g plain flour
- 100g pecans
- 50g brown sugar
- 80g oats
- 150gms unsalted butter
- 1 vanilla bean
- ½ tsp rock salt
For the filling of apple and rhubarb:
- 8-10 granny smith apples
- 3-4 rhubarb stems
- 80g unsalted butter
- 40gm brown sugar
Method
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
- For the crumble, vertically slice a straight line down the centre of the vanilla bean and use the back of your knife to scrape out the contents.
- Roughly chop pecans and add them to a bowl with flour, sugar, oats, butter, vanilla bean, and rock salt.
- With your hands, work the butter into the mixture to form large clumps.
- Set the crumble aside.
- For the filling, chop the rhubarb horizontally into 2cm pieces and add to the dutch oven.
- Peel the apples, remove the core and dice into 2-3cm pieces and add into the dutch oven.
- Add unsalted butter and brown sugar to the Staub La Cocotte.
- Using medium heat, sauté the filling ingredients on the stovetop until butter and sugar has melted, and the apples and rhubarbs are coated.
- Pop in the oven with the lid on until the fruit has softened.
- Remove the lid and sprinkle the crumble on top.
- Bake in the oven until the crumble is golden and the filling has caramelised.
- Remove from the oven, allow to cool for ten minutes for the crumble to harden.
