Apricot, Almond & Rosemary Crumble

📝 Ingredients

• 1 kg ripe but firm apricots (about 16 apricots)
• 2 tbsp honey
• 1 sprig of fresh rosemary (about 10 cm)
• 1 tbsp cornflour
• 60 g ground almonds
• 80 g wholemeal flour
• 40 g light brown sugar
• 50 g very cold unsalted butter
• 25 g flaked almonds
• 1 pinch of salt

🍴 Utensils

• Oven
• Baking dish, about 20 × 30 cm
• Mixing bowl
• Paring knife
• Chopping board

📖 Steps

1. Preheat the oven to 190 °C. Wash the apricots, cut them in half along the groove and remove the stones. The fruit should be ripe but still firm: if too soft, it turns to compote as it cooks.
2. Strip the needles from the rosemary sprig and chop them on the board as finely as possible, so they add flavour without being prickly to eat. If the honey is hard, loosen it for 10 seconds in the microwave.
3. In the dish, gently mix the apricots with the honey, chopped rosemary and cornflour until the fruit is well coated. Then arrange them cut side up, tightly packed, in an even layer.
4. Make the crumble in the mixing bowl: combine the ground almonds, wholemeal flour, brown sugar and salt, then add the well-chilled butter cut into small 1 cm cubes.
5. Rub the butter into the flour with your fingertips for 3 to 4 min, until you have large, uneven crumbs. Work quickly and don't knead it into a ball: the butter must stay cold for the crumble to be crunchy. Stir in the flaked almonds.
6. Scatter the crumble over the apricots without pressing it down, leaving a little fruit showing here and there so the steam can escape and the top stays nice and crunchy.
7. Bake for 35 to 40 min, until the crumble is nicely golden and the juices thicken and bubble at the edges of the dish. If the top browns too quickly, cover it with a sheet of foil for the last 10 minutes.
8. Leave to cool for at least 15 min before serving: the juices then coat the fruit instead of staying runny. Serve warm, spooned straight from the dish.