Plum And Almond Crumble

Ingredients

• 200 g plain flour
• 2 tsp cinnamon, divided
• 50 g caster sugar
• 100 g soft brown sugar, divided
• 125 g butter, diced, plus extra for greasing
• 900 g plum, halved and pitted
• 1 orange, zested and juiced
• 50 g almond

Method

1. Tip the flour, a pinch of fine salt and the diced butter into a large bowl. Rub between your fingertips for 3–4 minutes until the mixture looks like coarse breadcrumbs with no visible lumps of butter — keep your hands light and quick, warm hands turn the butter greasy and the crumble loses its shortness.
2. Stir in the caster sugar, ground almonds, 50g of the soft brown sugar and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon until evenly combined. Pinch a little between your fingers and taste — that pinch of salt should lift the almond and brown sugar, not announce itself. Adjust now if it tastes flat.
3. Sprinkle in a few drops of cold water and stir with a fork until the crumble starts to clump into pebbly pieces — you want a mix of fine sand and chunkier nuggets, because the contrast is what gives you craggy, crunchy peaks rather than a uniform biscuit lid. Slide into the freezer for 10 minutes to firm up; cold butter hitting a hot oven is what gives you the proper shatter.
4. Heat the oven to 200°C / gas mark 6.
5. Lightly butter a baking dish and arrange the plum halves snugly inside, cut-side up — packed tight so they hold their shape and don't collapse to mush. Pour over the orange juice; the citrus acid keeps the plums tasting bright and stops the filling sliding into jam territory.
6. Mix the remaining 50g soft brown sugar with the orange zest and remaining teaspoon of cinnamon, then scatter generously over the plums so each cut face gets a spiced, citrusy hit. Taste a plum if you're unsure of their sweetness — sharp ones want more sugar, ripe late-season fruit wants less.
7. Tumble the chilled crumble over the fruit in clumps — don't press it down, you want craggy peaks for maximum crunch and steam vents for the syrup to bubble through. Scatter the flaked almonds across the top and finish with a light dusting of brown sugar for extra crackle.
8. Sit the dish on a baking tray to catch any bubbling juices and bake for 30 minutes, until the top is deeply golden, the almonds are toasted and you can see crimson plum syrup bubbling thickly up around the edges. If the almonds darken before the fruit is bubbling, loosely tent with foil — toasted is good, scorched is bitter.
9. Rest for 5 minutes so the syrup thickens and stops scalding mouths. Spoon into bowls with the toasted almond crust on top, scatter any stray flaked almonds and a final pinch of brown sugar over each serving, and drop a scoop of cold vanilla ice cream or a slow pour of cream straight onto the warm fruit.