Whilst the UK is enjoying a brief spell of warm evenings, it is the perfect opportunity to dine al fresco and the perfect dessert is of course crumble, specifically our spiced apricot and banana crumble. The warming spices compliment the warmer weather, and served with a good vanilla ice cream, this is a double pleasure.

This recipe makes enough to serve 8. Alternatively to serving in a large pie dish, you could distribute the crumble between 8 ramekins and serve individual portions.

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 1 hour (30 minutes for the apricots & 30 minutes to bake)

Ingredients:

• 400g dried apricots
• 3 bananas
• 250ml water
• 2 tbsp soft brown sugar
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp allspice
• ½ tsp ground cloves
• 225g flour
• 150g butter (unsalted) – cold from the fridge
• 75g ground almonds
• 2 tbsp Demerara sugar

Recipe:

1. Put the apricots in a saucepan with the water, soft brown sugar, allspice, ground cloves and half the ground cinnamon. Heat until just boiling and the sugar has dissolved, then turn down to a low simmer, pop the lid on and allow to cook until almost all the liquid has been absorbed by the fruit. This could take up to 30 minutes, but keep an eye on the apricots. 
2. At this point pre-heat the oven to 180ºC.
3. Meanwhile prepare the crumble topping. Weigh out the flour and ground almonds into a large mixing bowl and sprinkle over the remaining cinnamon. Cut the cold (just from the fridge is ideal) butter into cubes and add to the bowl. 
4. Push together the butter and dry ingredients through your finger tips until the crumble mixture resembles breadcrumbs. If you are not going to assemble and bake the crumble immediately, cling-film the mixture in the bowl and leave to rest in the fridge.
5. Once almost all the liquid as been absorbed by the apricots, the fruit should be slightly swollen and lacquered in a spicy syrup. Transfer the fruit and syrup to a pie dish. Thickly slice the bananas and spread evenly out over the apricots. 
6. Top with the crumble mixture – it’s ok if a little bit of fruit pokes out at the sides. Sprinkle with the Demerara sugar and bake for 30 minutes or until golden on top. 
7. Serve with cream or ice-cream. Or both.