I'd never made a crumble before, and I don't think I've eaten one either, so I'm not sure how exactly they are supposed to turn out. In any case, I don't think this one worked very well. The crumbs basically merged with the fruit, and I don't think they added much to them. If you'd like to serve an Anglo-Saxon dessert, you may be better off serving the fruits by themselves.

The original recipe called for "mixed soft summer fruits", and suggested raspberries, loganberries, strawberries, currants, bilberries or whatever is available. Unfortunately, here in California we don't have very many berries. I used strawberries, blackberries and raspberries. I think that it would have been better (and cheaper) if I'd just used strawberries, the seeds in other berries were pretty hard and annoying to eat. For the topping, I used wholewheat breadcrumbs, which I made by grinding a few slices of whole wheat bread. I did that because I couldn't figure out what "wholemeal" was, and I couldn't find any pre-made wholewheat breadcrumbs at the market.

All this said, the dish was OK, if not great. There were leftovers, but we didn't feel inclined to eat them.

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Berry, Honey & Hazelnut Crumble

Ingredients

2 1/2 lb mixed summer fruits

3 oz. toasted hazelnuts, finely chopped

3 oz wholemeal or wholewheat brown breadcrumbs.

Instructions

Put the fruits in a saucepan, add about 1 inch of water and cook gently for about 10 to 15 minutes, until soft but not mushy. Sweeten to taste with honey. Drain excess juice and save the juice. Put the fruit in an oven-proof dish.

Mix chopped hazelnuts with breadcrumbs. Use mixture to cover the fruit. Bake at 350 F. for about 20-30 minutes. Serve with cream and the warmed fruit juices.

Adapted from The British Museum Cookbook