Winter fruit crumble

My favourite pudding is a crumble. Use whatever fruit you have leftover, experiment with different varieties of apple or pear, and try adding different spices like cloves or cinnamon, or even using brown sugar in the topping. You’ll know when your crumble is ready when there are little tinged, almost burnt, toffee bits on the edge of the dish. Serve with cream, double of course, ice-cream or custard and you’ll be very happy.

Serves four 3 large Bramley apples, peeled and cored 2 pears, peeled and cored a handful of dried fruit like apricots or figs 350g unsalted butter 250g unrefined caster sugar 2 pinches of mixed spice 300g plain flour a handful of oats, pinhead or jumbo are great

Melt 100g of butter in a pot and add the diced apple and pear plus half the sugar. Cook on a medium heat until the fruit is just starting to soften.

Roughly chop the dried fruit and add it to the apple and pear mixture with a pinch of mixed spice. Spoon this mix into an ovenproof dish, or 4 ramekins.

To make the topping, rub the remaining butter and sugar together, then mix in the flour, oats and another pinch of mixed spice.

Scatter the topping onto the fruit and place in a moderate oven for 45 minutes at 180C/gas Mark 4 until golden, crunchy. Serve piping hot with cream, custard or ice-cream.