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Pear, Apple and Blackberry Crumble with Hazelnut Ice Cream

This delicious autumnal crumble sings the praises of hazelnuts: roasted hazelnuts add crunch to the topping, while hazelnut syrup makes a lovely base for ice cream.

By bbcfood · From Open Recipes · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and pear match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 648 recipes mention both. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, fruity. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 8
Cook1 hr

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat, tree nuts (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Heat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Peel, core and slice the apples and pears into a baking dish of about 2 liters.

  2. Melt the 30g butter in a large pan, add the sliced apples and pears, the 100g sugar and the grated zest and juice of the orange. Cook gently for 8 minutes until softening.

  3. Stir in the frozen blackberries and cook 3 minutes more. Spoon the fruit into the baking dish and spread evenly.

  4. Rub the 250g unsalted butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in the soft light brown sugar and the 2 tbsp hazelnut, then scatter over the fruit.

  5. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until the topping is golden and the fruit is bubbling. Rest 10 minutes before serving.

  6. For the ice cream, warm the milk and double cream with the roughly chopped 125g roasted hazelnuts until just simmering. Remove from heat, cover and steep 20 minutes, then strain.

  7. Whisk the 7 egg yolks with the 125g caster sugar and 30g caster sugar. Slowly whisk in the warm infused milk, return to a clean pan and stir over low heat until it reaches 160°F (71°C) and coats the back of a spoon. Do not boil.

  8. Cool the custard, chill until cold, churn in an ice cream maker, then freeze for at least 4 hours before serving with the warm crumble.

By bbcfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Apple + peartop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together648 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  2. Butter + milktop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together81,222 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + creamtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together41,494 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Apple + orangetop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,229 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Apple + milktop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together4,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, apple, pear, sugar, flour, hazelnut, milk):

  1. Vanillabetter flavor fit
  2. Figbetter flavor fit
  3. Apricotbetter flavor fit
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, apple, pear, sugar, flour, hazelnut, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).