Strawberry & Almond Crumble with Sweetened Yogurt--A Great Warm Weather Dessert

For the past several weeks, there has been a little bag of local strawberries in my CSA box. They are tiny little berries, but are usually pretty sweet. Sometimes I eat them plain, or I dip them in chocolate, and when I saw the cover of Delicious Magazine's February 2009 issue, I couldn't resist, I had to make this Strawberry & Almond Crumble with Creme Fraiche. The roasted strawberries sounded interesting and good, so with a few healthier changes, such as replacing the creme fraiche with some lightly-sweetened non-fat Greek yogurt, I made enough for a couple of small desserts.

Strawberry & Almond Crumble with Creme Fraiche 

Delicious Magazine, February 2009

(Serves 6-8)

3/4 cup (110g) plain flour

3/4 cup (165g) caster sugar

3/4 cup (120g) blanched almonds

pinch of salt

90g (about 6.5 Tbsp) unsalted butter, chopped

4 x 250g (9 oz) punnets strawberries, hulled 

icing sugar (powdered sugar) to dust

baby basil leaves and creme fraiche to serve

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. (350 degrees F.) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Pulse the flour, sugar, nuts and a pinch of salt in a food processor until the nuts are coarsely chopped. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture starts to clump. Spread in a single, thin layer on the sheet. Bake for 25-30 minutes, stirring once, until golden and crispy. Set aside. 

Increase the oven to 220 degrees C. (425 degrees F.). Place the strawberries in a baking dish and roast for about 6 minutes or until they are just tender.

To serve, divide the warm berries among bowls, top with the crumble mixture, then dust with icing sugar, sprinkle with basil leaves and serve with a dollop of creme fraiche.

Notes/Results: Delicious! Roasting the strawberries sweetens them and the crumble is nice and light. To make it healthier, I swapped out the plain flour and added whole grain pastry flour. I also slightly reduced the amount of sugar and butter. I didn't have baby basil, so I just did a chiffonade of regular basil. My favorite part? The sweetened Greek yogurt--I just added a little vanilla and a tiny bit of honey to some Greek yogurt. So good it may become my new fruit dip. One note, maybe it was because I made a smaller amount, but my crumble topping was brown in about 18 minutes; any more and I think it would have been too dark, so watch the timing. This is a fun recipe for strawberry season and a keeper recipe. I think it will be fun to play around with other fruits too.

---------

If you haven't already entered my drawing for a free Hawaii cookbook and some black lava finishing salt, you have until Noon (HST) on Wednesday.  You can get all the details here.