Quinces and Apple Crumble with Hazelnuts and Warming Winter Spices (Vegan)

A crumble is not a traditional German or Romanian dessert, so I haven’t had the chance to enjoy it too often. But on those rare occasions when I did (I can count them on one hand), I savored every single spoonful. And what’s there not to like? A juicy melt-in-your-mouth layer of sweet, baked fruits alone is pure bliss to me, but when it gets topped with crunchy crumbles infused with sweet warming spices it becomes a full-fledged, comforting, delicious and satiating dessert. Just perfect as a healthy treat on a chilly day, and you can use any leftovers for a luscious breakfast.

The recipe I’m sharing here combines fragrant quinces with apples. The fruits are delicately flavored with star anise and cardamom, and topped with a crunchy layer of cinnamony hazelnuts and rolled oats. I love quinces in general and they work really well in this dessert. But as they are available only for a short period of time (at least in Germany), you might want to substitute them for other fruits such as pears, stone fruits, or berries, which will work fine too.

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Quinces and Apple Crumble with Hazelnuts and Warming Winter Spices

Fragrant quinces and apple crumble, delicately flavored with star anise and cardamom, topped with a crunchy layer of cinnamony hazelnuts and rolled oats.

Course: Dessert

Keyword: gluten-free, vegan

Servings: 6

Equipment

• You’ll need a small baking dish (20x30 cm).

Ingredients

Metric - US Customary

Fruit layer

• 2-3 quinces about 500-750 g
• 300 ml orange juice
• 1 star anise or 2 if you like a more intense anise flavor
• 5 green cardamom seeds
• 4 tablespoon rice syrup
• 3 big apples about 750 g

Crumble

• 100 g rolled oats
• 100 g hazelnuts coarsely chopped
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 50 g coconut sugar
• 4 tablespoon rapeseed oil or any other neutral oil

Instructions

• Peel the quinces, divide them into eights, remove the core, and cut them into cubes.
• Pour the orange juice into a pot, and add the star anise, cardamom seeds, rice syrup and cubed quinces. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer on low heat for about 10 minutes (lid on).
• Peel the apples, cut them open, remove the core and cube them. Add the apple cubes to the pot as well and simmer for another 5 minutes. When done, the fruits should be soft but not mashed.
• For the crumble, combine all the ingredients.
• In a baking dish, arrange the cooked fruits and layer the crumbles on top.
• Bake at 160° (fan on) for about 20 minutes, until the hazelnuts turn brown and the spices start to smell sweetly.