Chef Matt Budden shares his secret recipe for creating a mouth-watering gooseberry crumble
July brings us that glorious glut of red fruit that we associate with the great British summer, but for me one of the forgotten fruits of this season is the humble gooseberry. This traditional English fruit has an edge of sourness which when combined with a crunchy crumble topping make a sublime summer dessert.
Gooseberry and Golden Syrup Crumble
This makes enough for four generous portions. Serve with lashings of custard or a good dollop of Dorset clotted cream.
For the topping
150g plain Flour
100g chilled unsalted butter diced
85g demerara sugar
For the filling
300g gooseberries, topped and tailed
2 sprigs rosemary
1 tbsp Golden Syrup
100g caster sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 pinches cracked black pepper
Method
1 Make the crumble topping: mix the flour and the sugar together and rub in the chilled butter until fully combined and resembles large breadcrumbs, lay the topping out onto a baking sheet and bake in a low oven for 20 minutes (skip this stage if you wish, but this gives you extra crispy crumble topping)
2 For the fruity base combine all the other ingredients into a large pan and bring to a rolling boil - cook out for 5 minutes until the gooseberries have broken down. Strain the berries, removing the rosemary sprigs, and pour the gooseberry syrup back into the pan and reduce by half, this intensifies its sweetness. Divide the gooseberry mixture into four large ramekins and pour over the reduced syrup until just covered.
3 Break up the cooled crumble topping but try and keep in large chunks, cover the gooseberry mixture, be generous everyone loves the crunchy topping. Bake the crumbles at 175°C/ Gas Mark 3 for 20 minutes. Leave to rest for 5 minutes before serving with custard (hot or cold), clotted cream or ice cream.
Matt Budden is the culinary genius behind Schpoons & Forx at the Bournemouth Hilton, follow him on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram
