Easy Plum Crumble with the best Streusel
This easy plum crumble has a juicy and sweet (low-sugar) filling and a crispy, nutty topping. It’s quick and easy to make and you don’t even need a mixer.
Yield: 4 -6 servings (6 if serving with ice cream)
Ingredients
Plum filling:
- 500 g (1.1 lbs) Italian plums/damsons (see note)
- 3 tablespoons (40 g) sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon corn starch (optional, if you prefer a thick fruit compote; I did not use it)
Crumble topping:
- 1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon (75 g) all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup (75 g) hazelnut meal/ground hazelnuts (other ground nuts and almond meal work well too)
- 5 tablespoons (60 g) brown sugar (coarse brown sugar like demerera or turbinado make for a crunchy topping)
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 5 ½ tablespoons (75 g) cold butter
To serve:
- Vanilla ice cream
Instructions
Plum filling:
- Wash and pit plums, and then cut into cubes (or at least quarter them).
- In a pan (see note) combine plums, sugar, cinnamon (and starch, if using).
- Mix well, and then distribute plums evenly in the pan. Preheat the oven to 400°F/200°C with the rack in the center.
Crumble topping:
- Combine flour, ground hazelnuts, sugar, cinnamon, and salt in a bowl. Add cold butter in small cubes and work butter into the dry ingredients with your fingers. The butter will soften slightly as you go and the mixture should resemble cookie dough.
- Crumble the dough evenly on top of the plums.
Bake crumble:
- Bake the crumble at 400°F/200°C until the topping is golden and the filling is bubbly, about 20-25 minutes. If the topping is already golden brown but the filling is not yet bubbly, cover pan with tin foil and continue baking for a few minutes.
- Remove pan from the oven, and let the crumble rest for a few minutes (this will thicken the juice) before serving warm with a scoop of ice cream. Enjoy!
Notes
Plums:
The plums/damsons should be ripe (meaning slightly soft to the touch) to get a sweet and juicy crumble. If you like a super fruity crumble, use up to 2 pounds (~1 kg) of plums and use a slightly larger baking pan. You do not need to double the crumble topping as it is already a generous portion.
Reducing sugar:
If the plums are very sweet or if you prefer a subtle sweet crumble (especially when served with ice cream), you can reduce the sugar for the fruit base to 1.5 tablespoons (20 g) and for the crumble topping to 3 tablespoons (40 g) brown sugar.
Baking pan:
I used a glass pan with 16x26 cm. You can also use a brownie pan (8-inch square pan/21x21 cm) or round 9 to 10-inch (24 cm) cake pan. The best pan for baking acidic fruits like plums are non-reactive casserole or pie dishes. Glass, ceramic, stainless steel, or enamel-lined cast iron are perfect. Pans made from metals like aluminum, unlined copper, and untreated cast iron react with the acid in fruits and can leach a metallic flavor into the fruit crumble.