Monday 16 January 2012

Pineapple and Blackberry Crumble

This crumble was inspired by one of the dishes made in the third heat of the Celebrity Sport Relief Bake Off Challenge, shown on TV last week. TV presenter Anita Rani, who went on to be the overall winner, made a Pineapple and Blackberry Crumble with the coconut added to the crumble topping. No recipe was given for this, but it wasn't difficult to figure out a recipe which at least featured the same flavours in the dish. Anita added (I think) cinnamon and vanilla to her pineapple, and flamed it with rum while it was cooking. She then mixed in raw blackberries before adding the topping.

As usual, with this sort of thing, my recipe is a bit 'thrown together' as I don't weigh the fruit. I know that if I half-fill my large Pyrex dish with fruit and top it with a crumble mix made from 80-100g of each ingredient, I'm going to get 4-6 portions depending on appetite. I also took the opportunity to use more of the Light at Heart sugar/stevia mix that I've been given to try. The added stevia reduces the calories by half as you only need to use half as much sugar as usual.

So, this is roughly what I did!

Peeled, cored and chopped 2/3 of a standard sized supermarket pineapple into chunks.
Thawed a roughly equal volume of blackberries.
Melted about 40g unsalted butter in a frying pan and added the pineapple. As it started to cook I added 1 tablepoon of brown Light at Heart (or 2 tablespoons light muscovado sugar), a half teaspoon cinnamon and a teaspoon vanilla extract. I then poured on two tablespoons of rum which I mixed in and then flamed. I then turned up the heat and reduced the pan juices to a sticky caramel. The fruit was then cooled.
For the crumble mix, I rubbed 80g unsalted butter into 80g plain flour, 80g whole rolled oats and 40g white Light at Heart (use 80g regular white sugar). I then stirred in 20g desiccated coconut. I think it's important not to make the mixture too fine - leaving a few lumps of butter and some clumps of crumble adds to the texture.
The cooled pineapple was mixed with the blackberries, and 1 tablespoon of cornflour, to thicken any juices. The fruit was put into a deep casserole dish with a 1litre capacity, and the crumble mix was sprinkle evenly on top and pressed down lightly.
The crumble was baked until the top was golden brown and the fruit bubbling. I usually do this at 180C for about 45 minutes, but I started at a much higher temperature with this dish because I was cooking something else in the oven too. It had the first 10 minutes at 220C which didn't seem to do it any harm. It then finished off at 180C, with about 25 minutes cooking overall.

This was a really good combination of flavours - the pineapple, cinnamon, vanilla and hint of rum gave a tropical flavour, and fantastic smell, when added to the coconut in the topping. I'm not sure I'd have recognised the blackberries in a blind tasting but they added another taste dimension and a lovely colour to the dish. Coconut in the crumble topping is definitely an innovation I'll be using again with suitable fruit! Using the Light at Heart sugar in this context was fine too - I didn't notice anything different in the volume, taste or texture of the crumble mix.

13 comments:

Alicia Foodycat said...

I would never have thought to combine pineapple and blackberries, but I love the idea of a pineapple crumble!

Rolling Pin Claire said...

Love the idea of adding the rum in this recipe - would never have thought of it myself!

Suelle said...

Foodycat - I don't think I've ever eaten hot cooked pineapple before - it was quite a revelation!

Claire - rum certainly added to the tropical flavour!

Hazel - Chicken in a Cherry Sauce said...

What a flavour (and texture) sensation in a crumble! Tropical yet lovely and warm for this cold January.

Jude said...

I think I shall try this, it looks good although the OH might notice the coconut.

Never had a pineapple upside-down cake Suelle?

Sunshine - www.cancersurvivor26.blogger.com said...

This looks delicious! I would have never thought to put pineapples and blackberries together.

www.cancerinthecity.com

Suelle said...

I have eaten pineapple upside-down cake, Jude, but not hot!

Jude said...

Ah right. In this house Pineapple upside-down cake is a warm pudding!

Chele said...

That is a great flavour combo, so unusual, but I bet it makes your taste bud's zing at the same time.

MissCakeBaker said...

Looks delicious. Nice twist on a trad crumble.

Kate@whatkatebaked said...

Thank you for posting this- I really liked the sound of it on GBBO last week!

Snowy said...

Looks good. An unusual combination of flavours.

Liz said...

I made this tonight with cherries and it was gorgeous! Loved the combination of flavours and the cherries could be tasted (it was a tin and I used the juices to mix into the reduction.)