STRAWBERRY VANILLA BEAN CRUMBLEfeatured

My Mom is a saint. Ask anyone who knows her; they’ll completely agree. Growing up, my Mom taught early morning scripture study to the youth in our congregation. In most circumstances this would mean my Mom would prepare a lesson, meet the youth at the church building, teach them for an hour and then send them off to school. Done and done. But since we lived in small town Nebraska things functioned differently. Every morning, she would wake up around 5, drive out to the farms and the homes of each of the youth, pick them up, bring them back to our house, make them breakfast, teach them a lesson and then drive them to school. Oh, and she did this for 6 years. Even when it was below zero temperatures and she had to scrape ice off our station wagon. As far as I’m concerned she can write her ticket to heaven.

I was too little to fully grasp what was going on. All I knew was that when I woke up, there were cool teenagers in my house and a hot breakfast magically on the table. So yeah, this was awesome. I suspect this is where my love of all breakfast foods first started.

This recipe is extremely versatile. It makes a great breakfast hot or cold. Plain or with cream drizzled in. It can also be a dessert with ice cream or whipped cream on top. However you choose to eat it, you can’t go wrong. Seriously.

Recipe: Strawberry Vanilla Bean Crumble – Adapted from the cookbook “Hand Made Baking”  |  Soundtrack: Mika

• STRAWBERRY FILLING
• 2 lb strawberries (approx 6 cups) hulled and sliced in half
• 7 tbsp vanilla sugar (see note below if you need to make this)
• 1/2 cup flour
• CRUMBLE TOPPING
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 2 1/4 tsp poppy seeds
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• slightly less than 1/2 tsp salt
• 12 tbsp cold unsalted butter
• 1 3/4 cups rolled oats (not quick cooking)
• 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp turbinado or demerara sugar. You can use brown sugar if that’s what you have on hand too

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400°

To make the filling: Put the strawberries in a baking dish/pan. I use a 12 x 12 inch square dish, a 9 x 13 pan would work too. Sprinkle the vanilla sugar* evenly over the strawberries, followed by the flour. Shake the pan a bit and use a wooden spoon to mix the ingredients a bit. Set aside to make the topping.

To make the topping: In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, poppy seeds, baking powder and salt. Cut the butter into the mixture using a pastry blender or even your hands until the mixture resembles pale oatmeal. With a fork stir in the oatmeal and the sugar.

Evenly coat the strawberries with the crumble mixture and bake for 35-40 minutes. The crumble is ready when the topping is golden and the pink strawberry juices are bubbling out through the crumble topping.

Serve at room temperature or cold.

* To make vanilla sugar for this recipe: Mix 7 tbsp with 2 tbsp vanilla paste (available online or at Willliams Sonoma) or pure vanilla extract. Mix it together. Sugar will be sticky and wet. That’s perfectly okay for this recipe.

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