Top Ten Crumble Recipes

'Tis the season to EAT CRUMBLE. What else shall we do with the plethora of pears and plums which are precipitously piling in our pantries?

Not use them for alliterative purposes, that's what. A much better use would be to combine them with a crumbly, buttery, sugary topping and bake them until they turn into the queen of all autumnal desserts. You'll be wanting to do this immediately, I understand, so here are a selection of DS's finest. Please make double and send some to us, stat.

Now, we're never ones to say no to crumble in any guise, but why have plain apple crumble when you could have apple, maple and walnut crumble? Gooey maple syrup and crunchy walnuts, I'm sold. Of the opinion that a dessert is not complete without a high chocolate percentage? Then we have chocolate, raspberry and hazelnut or pear and cocoa nibs for you. You heard.

Of course there are those days when a decision is just too hard to make. Crumble or cake? Damian Lewis or Alexander Skarsgard? I just DON'T KNOW.

A solution: crumblecake. For the traditionalists (and hungry) among you, there's a super simple (and super delicious) rhubarb and apple version, the perfect end to a Sunday lunch. Managed to bag yourself a freezer full of blackberries? Then these blackberry crumble cupcakes and for you and whoever you choose to share them with you alone.

Oh no! You have blackberries going spare? Well then we insist that you put them to good use by making blackberry rum or a gloriously sticky blackberry sloe gin glaze.

PEARS! We haven't forgotten you, honest. In fact, you're the star of these gluten-free pear crumble slices. Portable crumble, where have you been all our lives? Not to be outdone by crumble cakes, it's the turn of best baking invention ever, crumblepie, in this case with pears and vanilla.

Even crumble seeming like too much effort? Cheat it up with our sluttishly easy, super-fast apple brown betty.

Of course, we wouldn't be proper domestic sluts without giving some thought to the eternal question: custard or ice cream? I'm in the custard camp, but for me it has to be cold, a bizarre circumstance, I know. Whether you prefer a good ol' fashioned homemade version or all dolled-up with whiskey and chocolate, we even have a Top Ten Custard compilation, to use up any excess you may or may not have made completely by accident...

Want more recipe inspiration? Check out the rest of our top ten recipe compilations.