Fruit Crumble
Updated March 19, 2024

- Total Time
- 1¼ hours, plus cooling
- Prep Time
- 5 minutes
- Cook Time
- 1 hour 10 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
Ingredients
- 1½cups/154 grams instant oats (see Tip)
- ¾cup/150 grams sugar
- ½cup/56 grams chopped pecans or walnuts
- 1teaspoon chai spice or ground cinnamon (see Tip)
- 1teaspoon fine salt
- ½cup/114 grams unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 2pounds fruit, such as berries, pears, apples, peaches, plums or a combination
- ½cup/100 grams sugar
- 2tablespoons cornstarch or flour (see Tip)
- 1tablespoon lemon juice
For the Crumble
For the Fruit
Preparation
- Step 1
Prepare the crumble: Heat oven to 375 degrees with a rack in the center.
- Step 2
Mix the oats, sugar, nuts, chai spice and salt in a medium bowl. Cut the butter into cubes the size of dice and toss in. Use your fingers to smush the butter into the dry ingredients until no yellow bits remain and the blend forms clumps. Refrigerate uncovered while you prepare the fruit (or covered for up to 3 days).
- Step 3
Prepare the fruit: If you’re using big fruit, scrub it well, then cut into ½-inch pieces, about the same size as small blackberries or big blueberries. Throw out any pits, seeds or stems.
- Step 4
In a large bowl, mix the sugar and cornstarch. Add all the fruit, then the lemon juice and stir until well mixed. Scrape the fruit and any juices into a 9- or 10-inch ovenproof skillet and spread evenly.
- Step 5
Scatter the chilled crumble mixture evenly over the fruit, breaking any large clumps into smaller pebbles. Place the skillet on a sheet pan to catch any dripping fruit juices.
- Step 6
Bake until the fruit is bubbling, the liquid has thickened and the top is nicely browned, about 45 minutes. If the crumble darkens too much before the fruit mixture is thick, place a sheet of foil loosely on top. Cool for at least 15 minutes before serving.
- If you want to make this gluten-free, be sure to use gluten-free oats and cornstarch.
- You can also use a spice blend, such as apple pie spice or pumpkin spice, or a savory blend, like baharat.
Private Notes
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Comments
Rebecca - you ask if regular oats can be subbed in for instant. Like you I never buy instant oats and while I haven't tried the regular oats in this recipe, haven't made it yet, I often make fruit crumbles during the year and when I use oats I always use Bob's Red Mill regular oats and it works great. When I make this, I am going to use those regular oats.
I make the crumble using equal parts butter, flour, oats and brown sugar. This can be multiplied ad infinitum, pressed into a slab and frozen. Then when I need it for the dessert, I just cut off a piece and chop it into crumble size. Now, for the fruit - frozen berries are NOT too wet. Don't thaw them unless you like mush. Toss any combo of berries with cornstarch and a little grated lemon rind, then pour into oiled baking dish. Top with frozen crumble and bake till bubbling.
Super easy and helps with a group of people. I used regular rolled oats and they worked fine.
This turned out really nice! I made the following changes though: 1. Use Brown Sugar in the topping, not white. 2. Use Old Fashioned Oatmeal, not instant 3. Use a pastry cutter to cut the butter in. 4. Used 1 tsp cinnamon and 1 tsp cardamom The crumble top turned out very crispy and crumbly and the spices went really well with a combo of blueberries and apples.
What can one use for the cooking pan? Can it be over-proof glass or must it be iron skillet?
Made last night and family was over the moon. Used cast iron pan which gave outer edges a bit of delicious chew. Used blues, small amount raspberries and chopped nectarine since that's what I had, and it had great texture and flavor. Hubby begged me not to alter the recipe!