Summer Fruit and Graham Flour Crumble

This Summer Fruit Crumble is the last thing my dearly departed oven made. Sadly, it was used for the last time, this past weekend, eeking out its last bit of heat to make this crumble possible. Cause of death? Old age and I assume, the fact that it just couldn't handle being over worked to death during that stretch of 100 degree days that it just followed the popular advice: "if you can't stand the heat..." and our dear oven just decided it was time leave the kitchen. Because I'm a sentimental sap at heart, I kind of miss the old gal - we made a lot of great dishes together.

The irony isn't lost in the fact that her last dish was a dessert. Signifying the end, it was a fitting tribute to all the braising, roasting and baking that our girl did. She happily got smeared with BBQ sauce, didn't mind the curry spills and didn't even flinch when I accidentally spilled chicken stock everywhere. As far as ovens are concerned, I think she had a good life. 

So now it's time to start on a new chapter, with our brand new oven, that I am ecstatic to report that it has 5 burners and a window, so now I can watch what's going on in there - talk about excitement! But before I get to posts involving the new oven though, here's to my old one. I raise a piece of cobbler in its honor, made from a variety of fresh summer stone fruits and berries and topped with a crunchy Turbinado sugar and a crumbly graham flour crust. Graham flour, if you're unfamiliar with it, it's a whole grain flour that grinds up each whole grain wheat kernel separately before combining it as opposed to grinding all of the components together. This makes for a gritty (in a good way) flour that lends an amazing texture to baked goods. Here, the graham flour provided a ultra crunchy and slightly nutty texture which played so well with the sweet and jammy fruit. I used less butter because I was going for a extra crunchy and loose topping as apposed to a heavy, more pie dough like - a great way to lighten things up without skimping on the good stuff!

Summer Fruit and Graham Flour Crumble 
Makes enough to fill 1 standard sized pie pan

- 4 cups summer fruit (I used bing cherries, strawberries, peaches and plums, but any mix will do)
- 1 TBS corn starch
- 2 TBS white sugar
- 3/4 cup Graham flour
- 1/4 cup Turbinado sugar
- 1/2 tsp allspice
- A pinch of salt
- 1/2 stick of chilled butter

Preheat the oven (*sigh*) to 375 degrees. Prepare fruit (pit the cherries, hull and slice strawberries, peel peaches) and make sure all fruit is about the same size. Gently toss the white sugar and corn starch with the fruit to evenly coat the fruit. Pour into a pie pan. In a separate bowl, combine the graham flour, Turbinado, allspice and salt. Cut the butter into the flour mixture using your hands until you are left with a mixture that feels (and looks!) like wet sand. Pour on top of fruit and spread out evenly. Bake until the fruit is bubbling and the crust is slightly brown and crisped.