Greengage and pistachio cobbler

1 hour
Serves 6
Easy

This plum dessert is the perfect warming recipe for an autumn or winter's day

It’s a brief season for greengages, so it pays to make the most of them while they’re at their best. A bowl of emerald green Reine Claude greengages sitting on the kitchen table brightens up the greyest of days. They lose their colour a touch when cooked, but are rightly considered to be one of the finest dessert plums.

A recipe by Stuart Ovenden from The Orchard Cook.

Ingredients

Greengages, de-stoned and halved 750g
orange zest 1/2
Honey a good squeeze
Ground cinnamon 1/2tbs
self raising flour 200g
Caster sugar 150g
Pistachios (unshelled) 60g
Unsalted butter 75g
whole milk 125ml

Method

Step 1

Heat the oven to 190C/fan 170C/gas 5. Tip the plums into an ovenproof dish, then cover with with the honey, zest, cinnamon and 50g sugar. Give it all a gentle shake, then pop in the oven to warm while you make the topping.
Step 2

Using a food processor, blitz 50g of the pistachios to a fine consistency. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, nuts and remaining 100g of sugar. Grate in the butter, then use your fingertips to gently rub everything together into a fine, breadcrumb-like mix. Stir in the milk to form a thick, doughy batter.
Step 3

Roughly chop the remaining nuts then take the fruit out of the oven. Spoon large blobs of the cobbler mix on top, scatter with pistachios and bake for 30-40 minutes (or until nicely browned and a skewer comes out of the topping clean).