The Pepo Farms Crumble Championship 🏆

What started as a bit of winter fun quickly became one of our favourite Pepo Farms Test Kitchen experiments.

We took one simple crumble formula, swapped the usual flour for our flavour-packed Pepo nut and seed flours, paired them with seasonal fruit and put each combination to the ultimate test: our team judges.

After weeks of knockouts, three crumbles earned their place in the Grand Final:

Apple + Raspberry with Walnut Flour
Rhubarb + Orange with Almond Flour
Mandarin + Pear with Sunflower Flour

The result? Apple + Raspberry with Walnut Flour was crowned our inaugural Crumble Champion in a landslide.

But the biggest takeaway was just how easy it is to change the character of a classic crumble simply by changing the Pepo flour, fruit and a few supporting flavours.

So here’s our master formula, followed by the three Grand Final combinations and the little flavour hacks we discovered along the way.

Pepo Farms Master Crumble Topping

Makes enough for one medium family-sized crumble.

Ingredients

• ¾ cup Pepo Farms flour of choice

• ¾ cup rolled oats

• ¼ cup brown or raw sugar

• 90g butter, softened or melted

• Pinch of salt

For the fruit

• Approximately 6 cups prepared seasonal fruit

• Sugar to taste, depending on the natural sweetness of your fruit (generally we used about 1/4 cup castor sugar with more required for rhubarb and orange)

• Citrus, vanilla or spices as desired

• A little thickener for particularly juicy fruit, if required (we used our flours or cornflour)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.

2. Prepare your chosen fruit and place in a medium baking dish. Add sugar and any additional flavourings.

3. Combine Pepo flour, oats, sugar and salt. Add the butter and mix until you have a rough, crumbly texture.

4. Scatter the crumble generously over the fruit.

5. Bake for approximately 30–40 minutes, or until the fruit is bubbling and the topping is golden and crisp.

6. Allow to stand for 5–10 minutes before serving.

Serve warm with yoghurt, cream, custard or ice cream.

🏆 CHAMPION: Apple + Raspberry with Walnut Flour

The simplest combination ended up taking the title. Sweet baked apple, tart raspberry and the rich flavour of Walnut Flour proved very difficult to beat.

Fruit combination

Use thinly sliced apple as the hero, with raspberries scattered throughout for colour, acidity and juiciness.

For the crumble

Follow the master crumble recipe using:

• ¾ cup Pepo Farms Walnut Flour

• ¾ cup rolled oats

• ¼ cup sugar
  

• 90g butter

• Pinch of salt

• Small handful of roughly crushed walnuts

• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Flavour hack: Keep this one simple. The Walnut Flour already brings plenty of character to the crumble, while crushed walnuts add another layer of crunch and nuttiness.

FINALIST: Rhubarb + Orange with Almond Flour

The dark horse of the competition, and only narrowly beaten in the Grand Final. Tart rhubarb loves the sweetness and fragrance of orange, while Almond Flour creates a rich, delicate crumble.

Fruit combination

Use chopped rhubarb with orange zest, the juice of half an orange and 1/2tsp of vanilla essence. Sweeten to taste, remembering rhubarb will generally need more sugar than naturally sweet apple or pear and needs 10mins in the oven on its own before adding orange segments and crumble topping to get the desired final result. fruit ratio 75% rhubarb, 25% orange segments

For the crumble

Follow the master recipe using Pepo Farms Almond Flour, then add:

• ½ tsp ground cinnamon

• ¼ tsp ground cardamom

Flavour hack: During testing we forgot to add our usual cornflour to the rhubarb and instead stirred a spoonful or two of Almond Flour through the fruit. It worked beautifully, helping capture the rhubarb juices while adding flavour. A happy Test Kitchen accident we’ll definitely use again.

FINALIST: Mandarin + Pear with Sunflower Flour

Bright, fragrant and a little unexpected. Sweet pear provides the body of the filling, mandarin brings freshness, and Sunflower Flour creates a beautifully savoury-toasty contrast.

Fruit combination

Use approximately:

• 75–80% firm-ripe pear, thinly sliced

• 20–25% mandarin segments

• optional zest of 1 mandarin

• 1/4 cup sugar, depending on the sweetness of the fruit

• 1 tsp vanilla

• Pinch of salt

For the crumble

Follow the master recipe using Pepo Farms Sunflower Flour and add approximately:

• ¼ tsp ground ginger

Flavour hack: Rub the mandarin zest into the sugar with your fingertips before adding it to the fruit. It helps release those beautifully fragrant citrus oils and distributes the mandarin flavour throughout the filling.

For our Championship version, we went one step further and finished the warm crumble with a drizzle of Wild Mother Mandarin & Blueberry Maple Syrup, a delicious discovery that came from a new producer connection made through Two Providores.

Make Your Own Pepo Crumble

The best thing we learnt from the Championship is that crumble doesn’t really need a rigid recipe.

Think of our master recipe as your starting point:

Seasonal fruit + Pepo flour + oats + butter + sugar + one or two complementary flavours.

Try Walnut Flour with apples, pears or berries; Almond Flour with stone fruit, citrus or rhubarb; or Sunflower Flour when you want something a little more savoury and toasty.

Then raid the spice cupboard. Citrus zest, vanilla, ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, toasted nuts and seeds can all take a simple crumble somewhere completely different.

And, of course, if you want to start with the reigning champion, Apple + Raspberry with Walnut Flour is officially the combination to beat.