Plum and honey crumble

The Chefs’ Alliance recipe of this month is Swiss honey flavoured crumble.

Brigitte Streiff shared with us the recipe for a very easy to do dessert, but don’t make it unless you signed the “Save the bees and farmers” petition to be submitted to the European Commission to ban pesticides that are harmful to our friends, the bees. 

Brigitte is Swiss but Italian at heart, and inherited her passion for good, clean and fair food from her dad. She started cooking as a little girl and after working in marketing for 15 years, she decided to give a twist to her life and career 8 years ago. Right then, she turned her passion into a profession and used her skills to help companies and institutions improve team work and communication areas. This is how Team Building Culinario was born, now a member of Slow Food Chefs’ Alliance in Switzerland, and running cooking workshops and seminars in Lausanne.

“Cooking is a tool of social cohesion to me”, says Brigitte. “I like coming up with tailor-made solutions meeting my clients’ needs. A cooking workshop might strenghten the bonds within cooking teams. A coworkers’ alliance to deal with creative menus, think outside the box, dare to try and find out something new altogether: so many occasions to enjoy sharing and teamwork once again”.

Crumble with plums, spelt flour, farina bóna and black bee honey

Ingredients (6 people )

• 1.2 kg plums
• 2,5 dl liquid cream
• 60 gr mascarpone
• 120 g mixed flour: 3⁄4 spelt flour, 1⁄4 farina bóna flour and a touch of roasted hazelnut flour
• 60 gr butter
• a dash of fleur de sel
• 40-50 gr cane sugar
• mixed spices (star anise, vanilla, cacao or cinnamon …)
• Swiss black bee honey – Slow Food Presidium

Dust the plums with cane sugar, and drizzle with honey and spices and let them dry in a pre-heated oven at 200 ° C. Let cook for some 10 minutes and turn down the oven to 180° C. Plums should be caramelised after 30 minutes and a slight juicy syrup should have formed.

For the crumble topping. Knead the spelt flour, the farina bóna [a traditional product from Valle Onsernone in Switzerland. It is a type of corn flour, obtained by fine-milling the toasted grain] and the hazelnut flour with butter and add fleur de sel [a salt that forms as a thin, delicate crust on the surface of seawater as it evaporates] and cane sugar cubes to have a slightly sandy mixture. Place this mixture on baking paper and bake for 20 minutes, until it is browned and crunchy. Add vanilla or star anise to the liquid cream and let rest. Whip the mascarpone and add a touch of honey to have a thick cream. Lay the plums on a tray, then add the flour and butter mixture and finally the whipped cream.

Enjoy your meal!