This peach and blueberry crumble uses the best seasonal ingredients for a nourishing and delicious sweet dessert. Its crunchy crumble top is totally gluten-free and added sugar-free, making it the perfect healthy treat to share with all your beloved.

Two weeks ago at was at my dad’s for a long weekend. He is living in the South of France, near Montpellier, where I grew up until I was about twenty. I really love this place, it is so different from my busy – and often grey, Paris. It is one of the most sunny French city with the beach from 5 minutes drive, which makes it very attractive for both tourists and also people who are looking for pleasant living conditions. And I am very grateful for having grown in this beautiful and rich place, and it’s always a big pleasure to come back and to re discover the city and its surroundings, as it is changing very fast and unfortunately I can’t visit very often for now. This time was really a lazy stay, I just wanted to relax and enjoy every little moment spent here with my dad. So, basically in my mind, it was excluding any fancy complex cooking for a weekend! Because even if I love to cook more than anything else, it often takes me a lot of time and energy, and asks me to be very focused, thinking about what I am going to do and how I could make it even better. But, obviously it was too hard to resist the temptation to cook.

As I am not the most demonstrative person, cooking is in some extend my way to show people my love or consideration, to spread happiness. There is nothing more rewarding than seeing someone you love having a big smile eating one of your cakes and taking an other piece, this makes me so happy. On top of that, it was my dad’s birthday a couple weeks ago – and mine two days ago, so it was obvious.

The Sunday morning, I went to the local farmers market, which was surprisingly big for such a small village. I love going to the market, even if I have nothing to buy: it’s always very inspiring, calming, and I always end up finding some beautiful products that could go well in my upcoming recipes. Also, visiting a market in a place you don’t know well is a good way to discover the local culture and products, and to soak up the atmosphere. This time, I have discovered lot of amazing products, like ancient tomatoes called “traveler’s tomatoes”, edible flowers, and these wonderful locally picked up wild blueberries. They looked so tasty and juicy that I instinctively bought one big crate, without even knowing what I will do with all these blueberries. But my answer came pretty fast: a generous crumble.

For a log time, crumble has been my favorite dessert, spicy apple crumble to be exact. I loved the hot and melting fruits at the bottom, preferably cut in large pieces, the warmness of the spices, and, more important, a generous chunky crumble topping, not too dry, not too baked. My ideal filling over topping ratio was something like 1:3 ! And it was a while I hadn’t done a crumble, maybe one year, so I felt very satisfy with this idea! Not to mentioned that a crumble is a very easy to prepare dessert, so I won’t have to spend a lot of time in the kitchen. I bought some seasonal juicy peaches to pair with the blueberries, and came back home to prepare my crumble. For the rest, I had to adapt with what I could have found in my dad’s cupboard, and I loved this little challenge. Fortunately, my dad has pretty good eating habits and I could find most of the products I needed. I wanted to make a gluten-free topping, because even if I’m not intolerant, it was a festive weekend, we ate a lot and I know gluten often makes me bloated. Also I wanted to keep it as healthy as possible so that everybody can take a second serving. So I made it added sugar free. To do so, I have used my little tricks, the same as in my sugar free cereals, which is adding a mashed very ripe banana, as a binding and sweetener! You can also add a tablespoon of coconut sugar for an extra sweetness and crunchiness but it’s optional. And inspire of flour, I’ve used almond meal and different kinds of flakes for a crunchy and light crumble. Here again, feel free to use other kinds of flakes if you don’t have buckwheat and rice: regular oats also work perfectly.

The result was DE-LI-CIOUS! Everybody loved it and it was so light that we nearly finished the whole plate! I liked it so much that I couldn’t not to share the recipe with you! So I made a second tasting at home for the final recipe, which was even better. Can’t wait for fall, cold and rainy afternoon to make some more crumbles!

PEACH & BLUEBERRY CRUMBLE

Prep time: 20 minutes
Baking time: 20 minutes
Serves: 6 servings

INGREDIENTS:

For the crumble:

– 1 cup + 1/4 cup buckwheat flakes (110g)
– 1/3 cup rice flakes (30g)
– 1/3 cup almond meal (30g)
– 1/3 cup chopped almonds (45g)
– 1 banana, very ripe
– 1 tsp coconut oil
– 1 tbsp coconut sugar (optional)
– 1/4 tsp cinnamon
– 1/8 tsp ginger powder
– pinch of salt

For the filling:

– 3 white peaches (550g)
– 1 cup blueberries (125g)
– 1 tsp lemon juice
– zest from one small lemon
– 1 tbsp corn starch
– 1 tsp vanilla extract
– 1 tbsp maple syrup (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.

2. Cut the peaches in medium cubes. Place them in a large bowl, along with the blueberries, lemon juice, lemon zest, corn starch, coconut oil, vanilla extract and maple syrup (optional). Mix to well coat the fruits with the starch and seasoning.

3. Heat 1 tsp of coconut oil in a saucepan. Put in the peaches and blueberries and cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes, stirring often, gently enough not to break the fruits. Then, remove from heat and reserve.

4. In a medium bowl, mash the banana using a fork until pureed. Add all the crumble remaining ingredients and mix well using a spatula or your hands to form a dough. It might be sticky and crumbly. If too wet, add a little more buckwheat flakes.

5. Place the filling mixture in the bottom of a ovenproof pan or skillet and spread them evenly.

6. Crumble the dry mixture on top, forming big chunks and covering entirely the fruits.

7. Bake for 20 minutes. If you see that the crumble turns too brown depending on your oven, you can place a sheet of aluminium foil on the crumble after 10 minutes.

8. Remove from the oven and allow to completely cool down before serving. Serve with ice-cream, hazelnuts and cardamome particularly works well, but simple vanilla also perfectly do the job.

CRUMBLE AUX PECHES ET MYRTILLES

Temps de préparation: 20 minutes
Temps de cuisson: 20 minutes
Quantité: environ 6 portions

INGREDIENTS:

Pour le crumble:

– 1 cup + 1/4 cup de flocons de sarrasin (110g)
– 1/3 cup de flocons de riz (30g)
– 1/3 cup d’amandes en poudre (30g)
– 1/3 cup d’amande hachées (45g)
– 1 banane bien mûre
– 1 c.à.c d’huile de coco
– 1 c.à.s de sucre de coco
– 1/4 c.à.c de cannelle
– 1/8 c.à.c de gingembre en poudre
– une pincée de sel

Pour la garniture:

– 3 pêches blanches (550g)
– 1 cup de myrtilles (125g)
– 1 c.à.c  de jus de citron
– le zest d’un petit citron
– 1 c.à.s de fécule de maïs
– 1 c.à.c d’extrait de vanille
– 1 c.à.s de sirop d’érable (optionnel)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Préchauffer le four à 180C.

2. Couper les pêches en cubes de taille moyenne. Placer les dans un grand bol, avec les myrtilles, le jus de citron, le zest de citron, la fécule de maïs, l’huile de coco, l’extrait de vanille et le sirop d’érable (optionnel, selon vos goûts). Mélanger afin de bien enrober les fruits de la fécule de mais.

3. Faire chauffer 1 c.à.c d’huile de coco dans une casserole. Y verser la préparation de fruits et cuire à feu moyen pendant 10 minutes, en remuant de temps en temps, délicatement pour ne pas écraser les fruits. Puis retirer du feu et réserver.

4. Dans un bol moyen, écraser la banane à l’aide d’une fourchette jusqu’à obtenir une purée. Ajouter tout le reste des ingrédients pour le crumble, et bien mélanger à l’aide d’une spatule ou des mains pour former une pate. Elle doit être friable, légèrement collante. Si elle est trop humide, ajouter progressivement un peu de flocons de sarrasin.

5. Placer la garniture de fruits dans un plat allant au four et bien répartir.

6. Emietter le crumble au dessus, en gardant de gros morceaux et en recouvrant totalement les fruits.

7. Cuire pendant 20 minutes. Si au bout de 10 minutes vous constatez que le crumble dore trop, le recouvrir d’une feuille de papier aluminium et finir ainsi la cuisson.

8. Retirer du four et laisser complètement refroidir. Servir avec une boule de crème glacée, le parfum noisette cardamome s’accorde particulièrement bien, sinon une simple glace vanille fera parfaitement l’affaire.