A few cloves and fresh ginger lend a spiced note that adds freshness to the berry mixture.

Ingredients for spiced strawberry crumble, approximately 3–4 individual portions

120 g of wholemeal wheat flour
90 g of almond flour
90 g of cane sugar
120 g of butter
1 handful of blanched almonds
300 g of strawberries
approximately 1 cm of fresh ginger
2–3 cloves

Crumble speziato di fragole — Fragrant berries and spices for the almond crumble © Beatrice Spagoni

Method

Wash the fruit and dry it, then hull the strawberries and cut them into pieces. Place all the fruit in a bowl with two tablespoons of sugar, grate in the ginger and add the cloves. Mix everything together well and leave to rest for approximately 1 hour.

Meanwhile, prepare the crumble. Cut the still-cold butter into small pieces and place it in a bowl with the remaining sugar, the wheat flour and the almond flour. Mix everything together quickly to combine the ingredients until you obtain "crumbs", rubbing the mixture between your fingers. Spoon 3–4 tablespoons of the spiced fruit mixture and some roughly broken almonds into each ramekin, then scatter the crumble over the top to cover the fruit generously and bake for approximately 20–25 minutes. Once the surface of the crumble is nicely golden, remove the ramekins from the oven, leave to cool slightly and serve.

Notes and tips

Crumble is a sweet or savoury dish that originated in England and Ireland during the Second World War as a way of making the most of rationed ingredients. The sweet version calls for fruit flavoured with sugar and perhaps a splash of liqueur, all topped with a mixture of butter, sugar and flour that transforms in the oven into an irresistibly crisp topping.

Spiced strawberry, blueberry and almond crumble