One of our recipe books has a fantastic crumble recipe so, with three cooking apples needing to be used, an apple crumble seemed like the obvious solution. The batteries have almost run out in our weighing scales so I decided to estimate the quantities. The art of a crumble is about rubbing enough butter in along with the flour, sugar and other ingredients so that the mixture develops an appealingly browned and crisped surface without making it too greasy.
This recipe also calls for oats, seeds (like pumpkin and sunflower seeds) and spices. It was when I got to the spices that I made a notable mistake. Powdered ginger was no problem but I also needed cinnamon. I reached up to the cupboard where that is stored and grabbed what I thought was the container. Perhaps I was getting too carried away with my improvisatory mood or perhaps it was that I was reaching things with my one hand while the other was rubbing in the butter? Whatever the cause, I realised that the spice I was emptying into the mixture was not cinnamon but cumin seeds!
It would have been a painstaking job to try and remove them so I added the cinnamon as well and just carried on mixing. I have to say that my hope it would all work out alright was amply met. The cumin seeds added pockets of exotic flavour to the topping; next time I cook a crumble I might add cumin on purpose.
Want to add something? Please join the conversation about this posting (nb. Yahoo! account required to log into Flickr).