A Stone Fruit Crumble

The Perfect Dessert for Summer - Extra Food Chat with Kath

Welcome to another edition of Extra Food Chat with Kath!

Hello! Happy New Year. I hope 2025 has begun well for you.

It’s been quite hot here in Sydney so far this year, we’ve had a few cooler days thankfully this week, which has been such nice respite - and a great opportunity to bake!

So far I have made the crumble I’m sharing in this newsletter today a couple of times, plus the Plum and Pistachio cake from Tilly Pamment’s cookbook The Plain Cake Appreciation Society. Stone fruit season is a wonderful one, so eating and baking with these lovely fruits is high on my priority list at the moment. I also ate a whole pistachio panettone to myself, so it’s been a pretty good start to year food wise!

I thought you might have similar feelings about stone fruit at this time of year, so I am kicking off Extra Food Chat in 2025 with this Stone Fruit Crumble recipe.

This crumble is based on this one first found in my cookbook Everyday Bakes, and came about in this rather summery stone fruit version because in between Christmas and New Year we had some stone fruit that were getting a little overripe and really needed to be used or eaten.

Easy crumbles like this one are my go to for using up fruit, especially when it is ripe or almost over ripe. In this case, the fruit being quite ripe means it cooks down nicely in the crumble in the short 30 minute cooking time, rather than having to cook any of the fruit separately. If a crumble requires cooking the fruit separately, I probably won’t make it! To me, crumbles should be quick and easy desserts, easy enough to make even on a weeknight and can be made at any time of the year.

So if you have any stone fruit that is getting past its prime, or see some on the quick sale rack of your green grocers, this crumble is the perfect thing to make. Underripe stone fruit (especially plums) won’t work as they will remain too firm and crunchy even after some time in the oven. Preserved or canned stone fruit will also work for this recipe (particularly those found in jars that are sliced up, not diced), I just find the flavour of fresh stone fruit is better.

If you don’t have any cherries you can leave those out, the bulk of the crumble is peaches/nectarines and plums and that will be enough for the recipe if you don’t have cherries. The pistachio is optional in the crumble, only because the crumble without it is great (and that is usually how I make it), but I felt a little pop of green on top of the crumble would be nice. You can leave it out completely or swap for another nut if you like.

I am loving this crumble so much, I think I will include in my next cookbook (which is still a work in progress!) - if you make it please let me know what you think!

Baking Beyond the Paywall: The edited and tested recipe for this Stone Fruit Crumble is below for paid subscribers.

Paid subscribers to Extra Food Chat with Kath support my work and keep the ovens on at Kulinary HQ. Paid subscribers receive posts like these in full every time, and can also comment on this post, and ask me questions about the recipe (or anything else really!). The entire recipe archive is also available to paid subscribers - check out what’s been shared so far with paid subscribers here.