Have you had loquats before? They are abundant in Hawai’i and many parts of California, though I think they may have arrived from Japan in the first place.
This is what they look like:
Loquats remind me a bit of apricots. They also have a lot of medicinal applications here (cough syrup – delicious!) and, when they are in season, they are a LOT of them. This loquat crumble is a great way to use them for a fast, family-friendly dessert. Loquats take to spice well and the gooey filling is really gorgeously jammy here, flecked with specks of vanilla.
Loquat Honey Crumble
Author: Saffron & Honey
Recipe type: Dessert
Cuisine: Local
A perfect marriage of sweet and tart, loquats and spiced crumble make a great dessert combination.
Ingredients
- Filling:
- 4 cups loquats
- juice of 0.5 lemon
- 0.3 cup sugar
- 1 T cornstarch
- Crumble:
- 0.5 US stick butter (or 4 T)
- 0.5 cups AP Flour
- 0.3 cups raw sugar
- 0.5 t vanilla bean paste
- 0.25 t cinnamon
- 0.25 t allspice
- 0.25 t salt (*omit if using salted butter!)
Instructions
- Halve the loquats. Remove the pits/seeds. You do not have to peel them - the skin of the loquats softens as it cooks down, plus provides some pectin for thickening the filling. Toss with lemon and sugar.
- "Pre-cook" the filling first - use a cast iron or similar deep pan you can easily transfer from the stovetop to the oven. Start on medium-low heat. Keep watch and stir often to make sure that the sugar does not burn.
- As the fruit starts to soften, add in the cornstarch, and cook down for a few more minutes, then take off of heat and set aside. You want it to be about halfway there - it will get jammy and thick as it bakes in the oven.
- Preheat oven to 365F. In a medium bowl, combine the dry crumble ingredients. Use a pastry cutter, if you have one, to cut the cold butter into the dry ingredients until the butter is pea size (it does not have to be too precise). If you do not have a pastry cutter, use a fork! Using your hands may melt the butter a little too much.
- Spread crumble topping evenly over the filling and bake for about 30-40 minutes until the top is toasty and golden. You may want to put a baking sheet under your pan in case the filling bubbles over.
Going into the oven! The crumble topping comes out with this lovely shortbread cookie-like texture. Let me know how you guys like it – it was a big hit around here.
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