Plum and pear crumble
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250mls (1 cup) water
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1 tsp vanilla essence
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1 tsp ground cinnamon or 1 cinnamon stick
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1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
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120g (2/3 cup, lightly packed) brown sugar
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800g plums, quartered, stones removed
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2 pears, cored and cut into pieces
For topping
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80g butter
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120g plain flour
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100g brown sugar
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40g rolled oats
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80g nuts (I used macadamias and pecans) coarsely chopped
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1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
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1 teaspoon baking powder
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Ice cream to serve
Step 1 - Preheat oven to 180°C.
Step 2 - Combine the water, vanilla essence, cinnamon, nutmeg and brown sugar in a medium heavy-based saucepan and stir over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil and simmer, uncovered, for 6-8 minutes or until mixture is slightly syrupy. Add the plums and pears and simmer for 3-4 minutes or until the fruit are just tender.
Step 3 - Cool and drain the plums of most of the syrup - you don't need the fruit to be bone dry, some syrup is still nice and helps to have the claret shaded juice to bubble up at the edges.
Step 4 - Place plums in the base of a 20cm pie plate
Step 5 - To make crumble topping, combine butter and flour in a medium sized bowl. Mix with your fingers until it is combined, then add in oats. At first, it won't be like fine breadcrumbs as there is a bit more butter but once you add the oats it will be like coarse breadcrumbs. Add brown sugar, nuts, cinnamon and baking powder. Mix well.
Step 6 - Top fruit in dish with this rubbly mix. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden.
Step 7 - Serve with ice cream
For a refreshing drink, mix 1 part spiced plum and pear syrup with 4 parts sparkling mineral water.