Plum and apple crumble with vanilla custard

The thing that is different about this crumble is that it includes the lovely flavour of marzipan in the topping. The flavour of almonds goes amazingly well with plums. You can serve this crumble with regular custard made with Oat Drink instead of milk but if you make the vanilla custard from scratch you will have a an extra special pudding which will everyone will like even better.

Ingredients

Serves 4

400g plums, cut in half and stones removed

200g eating apples, peeled, cored and sliced

2 tbsp caster sugar

For the crumble

250g plain flour

175g unsalted butter, cut roughly into 2cm cubes

50g rolled oats

50g caster sugar

100g marzipan, cut roughly into 1cm cubes

75g almonds roughly chopped

Method

Preheat the oven to 200C/Gas 6.

Place the flour and butter into the bowl of a food processor and mix together until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs (otherwise rub the butter into the flour by hand) and empty this mixture into a large bowl. Stir in the oats, sugar, marzipan pieces and chopped almonds.

Place the sliced apples in the bottom of an ovenproof dish followed by the plums. Sprinkle with caster sugar and then spread the crumble topping over the fruit. Place the crumble in the oven and cook for 40 minutes or until the topping is golden and the fruit begins to bubble though the crumble. Serve with vanilla custard.

Vanilla Custard

Ingredients

2 tsp cornflour

2 tsp sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 egg yolk

300ml Oat Drink

Method

Mix the cornflour, sugar, vanilla essence and egg yolk together in a small bowl. Stir in a little Oat Drink and then place the bowl over a pan of simmering water. Continue to add the Oat Drink and stir regularly until the custard begins to thicken to the consistency of double cream. Taste and add more sugar and vanilla essence if required.