An upside down crumble allows the juices to ooze out of the fruit and moisten the crumble mix, filling it with all those fruity flavours.

It is quick to make and does not need hours in the kitchen making it an ideal dessert to serve with ice cream.

I use a mix of strawberries and bananas but other fruits can be use such as any type of berries, apples, pears and it is delicious with medlars [naspli]

For the crumble:

150g self raising flour
150g ground almonds
100g butter, chilled and cut up into cubes
100g sugar [or equivalent in stevia]
vanilla
a pinch of grated nutmeg

Sift the flour twice into a large bowl. Add the cut up chilled salty butter and use your fingertips to rub in the butter into the flour until it looks like breadcrumbs. Add the vanilla, nutmeg, ground almonds, sugar or stevia.  Keep aside.

Use a tart dish of 21 cm with a loose bottom and grease it lightly with butter.

Scatter the crumble mix to cover all the bottom.

Before it goes into the oven

For the topping you will need:

1 kilo of mixed fruit [cut up into large pieces]
2 tablespoons honey or agave or maple syrup
1 tablespoon lemon juice
vanilla

Place the cut up fruit into a large bowl. Add the other ingredients and gently mix in so that they fruit does not break up.

To assemble and bake

Preheat oven to 200C.

Pile the fruit onto the crumble mix and bake in a hot preheated oven for 35 minutes until the top of the fruit starts to barely caramelize.  Drizzle if you wish with more agave/honey/maple syrup or dust with icing sugar.

Serve warm or cold with ice cream in the summer and hot custard in the winter.

I use President Butter available at Rimus Group

My fruit comes from Big Fresh, baking ingredients from Lamb Brand and kitchenware from Tescoma

Photos: Felix Cesare