Tummy Warmer...

I've had so much great feedback about the tips for chemotherapy article. Thank you to everyone who has read it and commented to me, its great and humbling to know that the things that come out of my head can be helpful.

Anyway this week has been SO COLD hasn't it? Well up here in Auckland where the temperature has dropped to the low teens. The rest of the country are laughing and sniggering at our patheticness and are probably thinking that early teens are downright tropical...but certainly our house isn't built for cold weather so I've been walking around with my many layers and my trusty old cardie. BUT along with cold days and nights come warm, hearty and filling dinners and puddings (soup, casseroles and wonderful roasts!). And since our feijoa tree is finally dropping MASSIVE sized fruit, I was requested by my family to make a giant feijoa and apple crumble. This is a great pudding, but also doubled as an addition to the girls lunchbox, and again as an after school snack. So versatile and so filling and so delicious. As I used wholemeal flour, I'm hoping it was good for them too!

What's your favourite winter warming dish - savoury or sweet?

I served this hot out of the oven with vanilla icecream and a granita made from the stewed apple and feijoa syrup - absolutely divine.
The recipe out of the Edmonds cookbook is perfect for the crumble topping, but I swapped plain flour with wholemeal and used brown sugar. I think its much nuttier, crunchier and richer in taste that way. You could also probably add oats if you want more crunch.

So, the recipe is:
75g butter, 1 cup wholemeal flour and 1/4 cup brown sugar. Rub the butter in with the flour until it resembles fine breadcrumbs, stir through the sugar and place on top of stewed fruit. Bake at 200deg C for 30mins or until nicely golden on top (and usually the fruit syrup is by now spilling out everywhere...which adds to the deliciousness!).