My friend Azita, from the most beautiful blog Fig and Quince, is travelling overseas over the next couple of months… to her beloved homeland of Iran that she hasn’t seen in 35 years. Her excitement and anticipation for this journey is well and truly infectious!
Not long ago, she very sweetly approached a number of her blogging friends to help out with providing a ‘guest post’, so that Fig and Quince may continue to run smoothly during her time away. I was completely humbled (and surprised… and excited…) that Azita had invited me to do this… Gather and Graze is still less than a year old and most of the time I still feel like the new kid on the block… winging it as best I can.
The one request she had, was that my dish, if at all possible, should have a Persian-slant to it. So, this is for you dear Azita… beautiful, new season Australian apples (from a local orchard no less) have been infused and enhanced with the exotic delights of cardamom, pistachio, barberries and rosewater to create a Persianised Crumble that (may not rival the foodie delights of Tehran and surrounds, but…) will at least touch upon some of the flavours that make Persian cuisine so delicious and unique.
Safe and wonderful travels my friend… You will be in my thoughts often.
(Persianised) Apple Crumble with a Rosewater Cream | Gather and Graze
- 50g Roasted Unsalted Pistachios (chopped fairly finely)
- 150g/1 Cup Plain Flour
- 75g/ 1/3 Cup Raw (or Brown) Sugar
- Pinch of Sea Salt
- 90g Chilled Unsalted Butter (separated into 75g and 15g)
- 4-5 Apples (peeled, cored and chopped into chunks)
- 10g/3 Tablespoons Dried Barberries
- 2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar
- 1 Teaspoon Ground Cardamom
- 250ml/1 Cup Heavy Cream
- 1½ Teaspoons Rosewater Essence
- 1 Tablespoon Icing (Powdered) Sugar (sifted)
Pre-heat the oven to 180°C.
Start by making the crumble topping… Place the pistachios, flour, raw sugar and salt into a large mixing bowl and stir to combine. Add the 75g portion of butter (that has been diced into small cubes) and rub into the flour mixture using fingertips.
For the apples… place a medium saucepan over medium heat and add the 15g portion of butter. Once it has melted, add the apples, barberries, brown sugar and cardamom and allow to cook for 4 to 5 minutes (just enough time for the apples to soften slightly and for the barberries to rehydrate a little).
Divide the apple mixture evenly into either individual baking dishes/ramekins or one larger-sized baking dish).
Spread the crumble mixture evenly over the top of the apple. Place dish(es) into the oven and bake for approximately 25 to 30 minutes until golden on top.
Allow to cool a little, before serving warm with rosewater cream (simply whip together the cream, rosewater essence and icing sugar until you have medium/stiff peaks) and/or ice-cream.
A Little Tip…
Another delicious alternative is to mix together some vanilla ice-cream with rosewater essence (about 1 teaspoon rosewater to 200g of ice-cream). If the ice-cream softens too much during the mixing, place it back into the freezer for half an hour or so, to harden a little. This was absolutely perfect with the apple crumble – I can well and truly recommend it!
Gather & Graze 
Margot, I am truly experiencing heaven going through your blog. The more I see, the more I want to see. I already left you a few message. I’ll leave you more with no expectation of response to all… if you wish, I’ll be happy with one collective response…. because, I cannot stop here. 😀 )))
So very sweet of you Fae! You’ve truly made my day with all of your lovely comments – thank you so much! This post is one of my favourites (if one is allowed to favour one’s own posts…) – for the beautiful aromatic flavours of Persia (that you know so well!) and for the gorgeous and inspiring Azita!
This is stunning. I love Middle Eastern flavours and the idea of this beautiful, fragrant crumble is making my mouth water! I think the structure and textures of a crumble make it a perfect vehicle for carrying flavours such a rosewater, pistachio and berries. You’ve combined everything perfectly! x
They really are such beautiful flavours to work with… always happy to have the aromas of cooked apple and cardamom wafting through my kitchen!
I love apple crumble – it is one of my favourite desserts. I love your version with the rosewater cream, I am dying to try rosewater ice cream now 🙂
The rosewater ice cream is perfect with this dessert… in fact it’s pretty much perfect even on it’s own! Hope you give it a try sometime Karen.
This looks delicious! Apples and pistachios sound like such a great combo.
They certainly are a great combo Chaya – apples seem to go so well with quite a variety of nuts, don’t they!? Thanks for your kind comment!
I love the idea of this rose water cream! Divine x
Cheers Deena – it’s such a beautiful flavour to work with!
I’m a big fan of crumbles, Margot, but this one belongs to a class all its own. You’ve certainly given it a Persian flair. Azita chose very well when she asked you to write a guest post.
Thanks John – I’ll be making this one many times again through the winter! It was such a pleasure to write this for Azita… and to eat the crumbles too (one of the perks of being a Food Blogger!)
Oh I love the sound of this! Apple crumble is tasty of course, but it’s been done a thousand times. This recipe looks like a great way to make it exciting again.
Thanks Mary! Happy to shake it up a little! 🙂
Absolutely gorgeous – I have a long term love affair with rosewater and use it a lot. This sounds so good!
Cheers Tanya! I can understand completely your love of rosewater – it’s such a delicate, aromatic flavour to use – absolutely beautiful!
Margot, this crumble looks delicious, I love the addition of rose water and cardamon. I’ll definitely give this a try very soon!!
Thank you so very much! With such beautifully aromatic flavours such as these, it’s hard to go wrong.
Oh, this just sounds too good not to try, Margot! I do have most of the ingredients and it’ll give me the excuse to use my rosewater. Azita will get excited over this, guaranteed! 🙂
I’d love to know what you think, if you give it a try Angie! It was a few weeks ago that I made this and I still can’t stop thinking about the flavours… and the rosewater ice-cream (in retrospect, I think that was more of a hit than the cream!) Hope you had a wonderful, relaxing weekend away!
I love crumble, in any form or colour we can make them. This is seems to be delicious and I’m sure the aroma has to be outstanding!
I’m with you! Crumbles are such a versatile dish and be adapted to so many beautiful types of fruit and flavours.
A fabulous guest post! Azita will be thrilled. Rose water sounds wonderful with ice cream and what a lovely creative crumble.
Sweet of you to say so, Seana! Rosewater is my new favourite ice-cream flavour – oh so yummy – give it a try if you get the chance!
I bet this is delicious! I love barberries, but don’t use it that often. The combination of barberries with pistachios, cardamon, and apples sound like a perfect “Persionised” treat! The rosewater cream is a lovely touch, too.
Hi Ngan, barberries are relatively new to me… I initially bought them to try in a Middle Eastern Lamb Pilaf dish that I make and liked them so much I decided to add them to this dessert as well. They’re great for adding that little bit of zing to a dish! Thanks so much for your kind comment.
You have done your friend proud. It is so sweet that you (and others) are helping to support Azita. Safe travels Azita!
…and you have a lovely site Margo.
Thanks Stacey – it was an absolute pleasure to help out!
What a beautiful crumble, love the spices used and the rose water cream sounds delicious.
Thanks very much Cheri! 🙂
I just love your crumble. The spicing the cream everything about it is wonderful, I have to make it. I bet it would be delicious with peaches or plums also!! Loved your guest post.
So sweet of you Suzanne – thanks! You’re absolutely right about the potential for using other fruit – with all your summer delights about to appear soon, I’d definitely go seasonal!
It was a lot of fun doing this little guest post… and I’m loving reading about Azita’s travels and experiences in Iran recently!