Rhubarb Crumble with Cream

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp cornflour
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 100 g caster sugar
• 700 g rhubarb, trimmed and cut into 3 cm pieces
• 1 tsp orange zest, finely grated
• 1 tbsp orange juice
• 150 g plain flour
• 75 g rolled oats (medium flake)
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 100 g soft brown sugar
• ¼ tsp salt
• 125 g unsalted butter, cold and diced
• 300 ml double cream, lightly whipped or cold for pouring

Method

1. Heat the oven to 190°C fan and butter a 2-litre ovenproof dish — the butter helps the edges caramelise rather than stick.
2. Tip the rhubarb into a large bowl with the caster sugar, orange zest, orange juice, ground ginger and cornflour. Toss until every piece is glossy and evenly coated — the cornflour is what turns the juices into syrup rather than a watery puddle. Spoon into the prepared dish and level the top.
3. Rub the cold diced butter into the flour with your fingertips until the mixture looks like coarse breadcrumbs with a few larger buttery nuggets still visible. Keep the butter cold — warm butter blends into the flour and you lose the crunch.
4. Stir through the oats, brown sugar, cinnamon and the ¼ tsp salt, pressing some of the mix together briefly between your palms so you keep a few thick clusters. Taste a pinch of the dry crumble — it should be sweet with a faint savoury edge from the salt; that pinch is what stops the topping tasting flat against the fruit.
5. Scatter the crumble over the rhubarb in an even blanket, leaving the surface craggy rather than smoothed flat. The peaks are where the deepest colour develops.
6. Bake for 35–40 minutes, until the top is deeply golden and crisp and the rhubarb juices are bubbling up around the edges in thick, syrupy pools — a knife tip should slide easily into the fruit with no resistance. If the top is colouring faster than the fruit is softening, drop the oven by 10°C and keep going.
7. Let it settle for 5 minutes off the heat so the juices thicken and stop running. Taste a spoonful from the edge — if the rhubarb reads sharper than you'd like, a final pinch of sugar stirred into the cream balances it; if it's too sweet, the cold cream is your counterweight.
8. Spoon the crumble into bowls, pour the cold double cream generously over the top, and let it melt into the hot ruby fruit before the first mouthful.