Pumpkin Poppy Crumble

If you did not already know it, I am half Italian (and half Suisse) and even if the Italian cuisine is fantastic, there is something we do not have. And that is warm puddings. I LOVE hot desserts and -besides Stefan – it did definitely play a role to choose Austria as my new homecountry 15 years ago 😉 . Kaiserschmarrn, Milchrahmstrudel, Scheiterhaufen…comfy, calorie-dense winter soulfood you can enjoy in some old-fashioned Viennese caffee and you should definitely indulge on it if you visit Austria. English speaking countries have also a nice variety of warm puddings and one of them turned to be easy to make and very customizable: crumble. We experimented a lot with it: rhubarb, strawberries, apples…and then it was pumpkin season and I rescued a lot of crushed poppy seeds from a local grocery store where the best before date was exceeded. We love pumpkin and we love poppy seeds. The Pumpkin Poppy Crumble was born.

Basically, crumbles are built all the same way

• the crumbles: butter, twice as much flour, sugar and a pinch of salt. Buy the best butter you can afford, it pays off with good taste and crumbliness. With the flour you can play around and replace parts of it with oats, seeds, nuts or other flour than wheat. I think you could also do it completely gluten free and probably also vegan by buying a high quality margarine or coconut oil but we did not try it. Sugar is to taste, I also think there is no reason why you should not make a savoury version too. Which bring us to…
• the filling: everything goes, but you should pay attention that if you do not want it to be raw, you should cook it before. If the veggies or fruits are very watery you should also cook them and thicken them with starch or flour before putting it in the oven.
• the add-on’s: in Great Britain crumble is often served with vanilla ice cream or custard. Why not? If you need an easy, creamy and not to caloric version, try our vanilla and honey curd ice-cream.

If you do not feel very creative or are just searching for some Halloween inspiration or you have too much pumpkin, we provided you with this recipe. By the way, we used Hokkaido as you do not have to peel it. Butternut squash is also a good option as you do not have to peel it either, but feel free to use your favourite.

Ingredients

• 60g Butter, cold, in chunks
• 1,2kg Pumpkin (Hokkaido) flesh, seeds out, chopped in to mouth-size pieces
• 60g Flour
• 60g Crushed poppy seeds
• 30g Sugar
• Pinch of Salt
• Spices: we used nutmeg, cinnamon, vanilla and cardamom

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven at 200 degree Celsius.
2. Put the already chopped Hokkaido in a pan with a little water and cook, covered, until softened. Add spices and sweeten if you think it is necessary (use honey, sweetener, sugar or whatever you like).
3. Make the crumble: mix the cold butter, flour, pinch of salt and crushed poppy seeds quickly until you have a crumbly texture. Add the sugar last without mixing it too much.
4. Pour the pumpkin in a tray of appropriate size (ours is 20 x 22 x 5cm) and sprinkle the crumbles uniformely on top. Press them slightly down with a spoon.
5. Put it in the oven and cook for approximately 30 minutes.
6. Let it cool properly before enjoying it: it is worth waiting! Even if it is delicious warm, the taste is even better after one night in the fridge. Eat it alone or with ice-cream, custard, creamy joghurt…
7. Feel great.

Macros

Makes 6 generous portions, each having the following macros:

• 304 kcal
• 6,3g Protein
• 37,1g Carbs
• 13,8g Fat

Spoiler alert: stay tuned for even more crumble recipes in the future 😉 .