'Adding oats to a good old fashioned crumble gives a lovely nutty flavour and crunchy texture'
Rachel Allen, 'Bake', p81
Firstly, many apologies for the long break in blogging. It's been such a busy couple of months - in May we had Megan's dedication (Baptist version of a christening) which gave me plenty of excuses to bake, but no time to blog! Once I'd caught my breath from that, it was time to prepare for our first family holiday abroad. We had a wonderful time, just returning last Friday. I'm now trying to ignore my huge stack of ironing and catch up here!
Well, this bake happened over 2 months ago. For once, it was nothing really new for me. I have a very similar crumble recipe, which I got from a 'healthy heart' leaflet that I picked up in a GP surgery once. It really does add something to the classic crumble recipe. For anyone who'd like to try it, Rachel's recipe is as follows...
- Place 100g (5oz) plain flour and 1tsp ground cinnamon (optional) into a large bowl. Add 75g (3oz) chilled, cubed butter and rub in until it resembles very coarse breadcrumbs. Don't overwork, or you'll lose that lovely crunch. Add the oats and sugar, and mix to combine.
- Sprinkle over stewed apple and bake at 180C/350F/GM4, for 15 minutes (small crumbles) or 30-45 minutes (large crumble) until golden.
Easy peasy! Rachel suggests serving it with whipped cream or ice cream, but I do enjoy a good dollop of custard with my crumble.
This was one of Megan's first weaning foods, and she loved it! We're doing baby led weaning, as we did with her brother, so a word on that if you're not familiar with it. Basically, it involves forgetting purees and just letting baby share your food. That's it! There are very few hard and fast rules, apart from that the baby should always be in control and choose how much they eat. The theory is that the baby learns to control their own appetite, rather than being persuaded to have 'just one more spoonful'. Some also say that it produces less fussy children. Unfortunately this didn't work with Evan! He'd eat anything and everything until about a year, and then found his stubborn little personality. I'm sure this is common for a lot of children, baby led weaned or not! So I'm making the most of Megan at the moment, while she'll try anything and everything. We're having lots of fun!
Anything goes really, with baby led weaning. There are a few things they can't have, such as added salt and honey (before a year). It's best to start with 'sticks' of food that stick out from a closed hand, as intitially they can't open their fist to get food inside. So carrots; broccoli; strips of melon; slices of apple; asparagus {if you're feeling posh!) are all good. And lack of teeth doesn't seem to be an issue! Evan didn't get a tooth until he was 9 months, but he could have a good munch on an apple. Megan loves meat at the moment, and she still hasn't got any teeth. Here's a photo of her enjoying that yummy crumble...
We did 'loaded spoons' for the custard, so filled the spoon and let her take it to her own mouth. She did really well for not quite 6 months. And she was able to pick up large lumps of crumble with her fingers and shovel it in! Messy but lots of fun.Here are some of her other first foods... 'Dippy egg'; stir fry with noodles; and calamari in Menorca. The latter kept her amused for ages!
So there you are, a little digression this time, but I hope you've enjoyed it! If anyone wants to find out more about baby led weaning, I can highly recommend the forum at www.babyledweaning.com/forum.
Back soon (I hope!) with some of the party recipes that we enjoyed at Megan's dedication.
