It was a brave man who came between my grandfather and his roast potatoes but my grandmother and I were united in our shared love of desserts. She recognised in me an ally; someone who would never turn down a bowl of ice cream or a slice of cake.
My grandmother was, for the most part, a mediocre cook - she never met a piece of meat that she wasn't able to overcook comprehensively - but give her a bag of sugar and a slab of butter and she could work wonders. We used to go to my grandparents' house most Sundays for lunch and whilst the rest of the family would dread these meals, I knew that I would be going home happy, filled to the point of nausea with at least three helpings of dessert.
And more often than not, that would be three helpins of apple crumble. Always apple; any other fruit would really have been quite exotic. There were no fancy ingredients in my grandmother's crumble, just good honest flour, butter and sugar. Lots and lots of sugar. It was served with ice cream, custard or cream. Or, if you were my grandfather, all three.
Crumble always strikes me as a winter dessert with fruit so soft and hot that it burns your mouth under a buttery biscuit topping. Too much crumble can weigh upon you like a brick in your stomach (and indeed it often did after lunch at my grandparents') but these individual crumbles, made with rhubarb and the merest hint of white chocolate, feel like something completely different.
The tartness of the fruit complements the sweetness of the topping perfectly and by roasting, rather than poaching, the rhubarb, it retains its shape and structure. This is the perfect dessert with which to battle the high winds and torrential rain that May seems to have brought us.
Rhubarb and white chocolate crumble (makes 4 individual crumbles)
250g rhubarb2 tbsp water2 tbsp caster sugar25g white chocolate chips100g unsalted butter, softened100g caster sugar200g all-purpose flour
1. Preheat the oven to 180oC.2. Wash the rhubarb, remove the leaves and cut into chunks about 3 cm long. 3. Place the rhubarb on an oven tray and sprinkle over the water and the caster sugar. Roast in the oven for 15-20 minutes until the fruit has become slightly soft to the touch. 4. Put the rhubarb into your ramekins so that they are about 2/3 full (you can make one in a bigger dish if you prefer). Sprinkle with white chocolate chips. 5. To make the crumble topping, rub the butter, sugar and flour together with your hands until you have something that resembles breadcrumbs. Sprinkle over the rhubarb until your ramekins are full and bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes until golden brown. Serve warm with ice cream or cream.
