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Friday, November 18, 2011

Sweet sweet Friday: Gruffalo Crumble

Don't tell the World Wildlife Fund, but sometimes the Small Girl and I have hippopotamus sandwiches for lunch. Only sometimes, mind you. Other times we have rhinocerous on toast, or elephant jam. Her absolute favourite though (and mine too, because hippopotamus is dreadfully chewy), is Gruffalo crumble.
"A gruffalo?," I hear you ask. "What's a gruffalo?"
I admit, I hadn't heard of The Gruffalo until earlier this year, but it's a major phenomenon known by most parents of small children. If you think you're too old for picture books, it's also been turned into a film by the BBC. Robbie Coltrane voices the Gruffalo and it's utterly perfect.


Gruffalo Crumble
This is a hybrid of various crumble recipes. In truth it's a 'crisp' rather than a crumble, because you melt the butter rather than rub it in. This is much faster and - as long as you take care with the hot butter - more child-friendly to make. Less of it will end up on your kitchen floor this way too, which is always helpful.
This makes enough for a large bowl, but what I do is mix it up, then put it in a ziplock plastic bag and freeze it. Then, when we're in the mood for gruffalo crumble, I can shake a bit out over the top of a ramekin or two of cooked (or, gulp, tinned) fruit, put it in the oven and before you can say "silly old fox, doesn't he know, there's no such thing as a Gruffalo", pudding's sorted.


125g butter, melted
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup flour (last time I made this we forgot the flour - and it was fine)
3/4 cup coconut
1tsp cinnamon
1tsp ground ginger
handful of sunflower and sesame seeds or chopped nuts

Put all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and stir well. Add the melted butter and mix again. Crumble over cooked fruit (dark plums and apple are a favourite combination in our house) and bake at 180C for 20-30 minutes depending on the size of the dish. The mixture freezes well and can be cooked from frozen.


Have a sweet, sweet weekend, everyone x

8 comments:

  1. We love the gruffalo :-) And this sounds sooo good!

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  2. Ha ha - we're having gruffalo crumble on Saturday when we have friends over for tea. We LOVE gruffalo crumble and scrambled snake and roasted fox and owl ice-cream. We'll have to try hippopotamus sandwiches next. We'll let you know our verdict.

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  3. Oh but Gruffalo sounds scccrumptious! But hippopotamus sandwiches...mm-mmmm! and look at our wee girl..so grown! Just as sweet though! Miss you. I will have to take a trip to Wellington! I've been promising to visit friend Eileen some time.This post will hasten the trip I think!xoxox

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  4. Brilliant! My kids love the Gruffalo. We're celebrating an 8th birthday tomorrow so this could be just the ticket (although with the hot weather we're having at the moment owl icecream might be more appropriate!).

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  5. your little girl is just gorgeous :-)

    we love the Gruffalo too - they just brought it to the Sydney Opera House, but I decided at 23months that my little one was a bit too young. Must look up the film though. I love crumbles and will definitely try this one, thank you

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  6. Oh this was enchanting and made me smile too. Although I may have to warn the RSPCA . . . just kidding! :) You can never have too many hippo sarnies.

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  7. Yummo, love the kid friendly aspect, and what a gorgeous gal you have!

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  8. Oh, how sweet! I heart the gruffalo big time. Very cool crumble!

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Hello - thanks for stopping by. If this was real life I'd make you a cup of tea and open the biscuit tin, but in lieu of those things, let's have a chat anyway...