Spiced Pear Crumble

My own take on the traditional Apple Crumble, this Spiced Pear Crumble is everything winter. It is comforting, warming and soothing.

So why on earth was I baking this on a stinking hot Melbourne day? Good question. The mercury was bumping 40 today and here I was making a winter favourite in my sweltering kitchen. The heat has done something rather interesting to my brain, I feel.

Anyway, I digress.

Ingredients

8 small pears, peeled and sliced into 1/2 cm slices

80g butter, cubed & chilled

2 tablespoons melted butter, extra

3/4 cup plain flour

2/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup rolled oats

1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 tablespoons vanilla sugar

vanilla icecream, to serve

Method

Preheat oven to 190 degrees (170 fan forced). Brush an oven-proof dish with the melted butter. In a bowl, add flour, half the cinnamon and the chilled butter. Using your fingertips, rub the butter into the flour mixture until well combined. Stir in oats and brown sugar.

Put sliced pears into greased dish along with lemon juice, remaining cinnamon and vanilla sugar. Toss well, ensuring all pear slices are coated. Spread crumble mixture evenly over pears and bake for 30 mins.

Serve warm with icecream.

Tip: if you don't have vanilla sugar, you can use caster sugar. You can also make your own vanilla sugar by burying a split vanilla pod in some caster sugar in an airtight container.