Autumn is here.
It came quite suddenly, as soon as February finished. Just as summer was technically over, on the first day of March, I found autumn leaves at my back door.
I am welcoming autumn, and winter, this year. Summer in Australia is hot, humid and disgusting. I don’t live near the beach and the sun here is too strong to lie in it for long anyway.
So cooler weather is welcome. Besides loving winter fashion much more than its summer counterpart, winter somehow suits my favourite pastime (of baking) and blogging much more too. Baking on a rainy day like today makes much more sense then baking in 35 C degree heat.
But I will sorely miss summer fruits. The peaches, the mangoes, the cherries. The summer berries, especially.
I really love baking with strawberries, ever since I baked this pie I have fallen in love with them in their juicy, sweet baked form.
And this crumble was delicious. The big, juicy chunks of strawberries topped with just a little crispy, buttery crumble was awesome, and I made it twice more before I even got to post this.
I ate this crumble for breakfast, for afternoon snacks and as bedtime feasts. I ate this crumble as I enjoyed the last of the warm days, and the last of the summer fruits.
- FOR THE STRAWBERRIES
- 3 punnets of strawberries (750g, 27 oz)
- ½ cup sugar
- 2 tbsp tapioca flour or cornstarch
- pinch of salt
- FOR THE CRUMBLE
- 1 cup flour
- 70g unsalted butter, cubed (2.5 oz)
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- pinch of salt
- Preheat the oven to 180 C and get out a 30 x 30 cm ceramic dish (or similar).
- To prepare the strawberries, hull and halve the strawberries. Place them in a large bowl with the sugar, tapioca flour and salt. Set aside.
- To make the crumble, combine the flour, butter, sugar and salt either with your fingertips or using an electric mixer with paddle attachment set on low. Mix until it forms a crumble mixture.
- Spread the strawberries into the baking dish and evenly cover with crumble mixture.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes, until golden. Serves 6-8.