Nectarine Crumble

There are a number of easy-to-make fruit desserts, which consist of baked fruit covered in various types of crumbs or batter. These go by the names of Brown Betties, grunts, cobblers, crumbles and crisps. They're all variations on a theme.

Because I had recently purchased some seemingly ripe, but actually rock-hard nectarines, I was inspired to design a recipe to both soften and sweeten them, that is, to bake them into submission.

Ingredients for fruit base:

• 7 nectarines sliced (no need to peel because they aren't creepily fuzzy-skinned like peaches)
• 1/2 cup plum jam (apricot jam should work just as well)
• 1 tablespoon flour
• pinch of salt

The nectarines, in a pretense of ripeness.

Ingredients for topping:

• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup flour
• 1 cup rolled oats
• pinch of salt



The topping

Methods:
Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees F. After slicing the nectarines, combine the ingredients for the fruit base in a bowl then transfer to an ovenproof baking dish. Mix together the ingredients for the topping and place evenly over the fruit. Bake for approximately 50 minutes or until the fruit is bubbling at the edges of the baking dish and the crumbly topping is golden brown. Serve warm with vanilla icecream.