Playing With Farro: Apple Cranberry Pecan Crumble

I don’t know whether its genetic, or a habit that I developed in my formative years, but I can never just do things the simple, straight-up way (like baking an olive oil cake four friggin’ times to get it right).  I like being experimental and often do things the hard way to learn.  This tenacity of mine can be both a blessing and a curse, not to mention an epic test of my patience.  And a whole mess of dishes.

Lucky for me, crumbles require only a very straightforward technique and a simple ratio, leaving little room for error or loss.  My little experiment was successfully stress-free with a favorable result.

The choice of filling was obvious.  The plethora of apples I had picked up the week before needed to be used.  Fresh cranberries, pecans, and lots of spices would be added.  Everything would be pretty standard except that I would use fresh ginger instead of powdered, and use anything but all-purpose flour.

Which brings me to the farro.

Farro was never in the original plan.  I had planned on using up some of the aging whole wheat flour that sat in the darkest corner of my crowded cupboard.  The intention was to make a heartier, healthier topping.  In the search for the whole wheat flour, I managed to knock over a box of crackers, a bottle of honey, and a small plastic bag that was being held together by a green rubberband.  Lo and behold, in the crinkled wrapper was the remaining half cup of farro I had leftover from a previous dinner.

Being that the farro was in whole grain-form, I had to turn it into a flour.  My coffee grinder did a perfect job.  There were still a few tiny pieces of grit to the touch, but those went unnoticed in the final product. (Unfortunately, this grain is pretty hard, and gave the appliance a workout.  Thankfully, there does exist emmer farro flour, as found on Bluebird Grain Farm’s website, which, thanks to Ashley, is now known to me.  If that needs any more grinding for this recipe, it should be minimal.)

The farro must be ground extremely fine, powdery to the touch.

So how did the farro topping turn out?  Well, to test it out, I also made a whole wheat flour topping to compare.  The difference wasn’t ground-breaking, but I definitely think it was worth the effort.  The crumble with the farro offered a lot more satisfying “oomph” in terms of flavor and texture.  The whole wheat flour topping, though nearly as crisp, tasted flour-y, for lack of a better term.

Farro topping with diced butter.

As for the fresh ginger versus powdered, I tried both of those as well.  The fresh ginger in the crumble left a nice, lingering zing, which at first I wasn’t so sure about.  But when I tried the powdered rendition, I missed that tang.  Its really just a matter of preference, of course…

Lastly, as with so many apple desserts, a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream is somewhat requisite.  Of course, crème fraîche ice cream(!) or vanilla crème fraîche ice cream(!!), would work just as well if not more so!

p.s.  For the apples, I happened to use half Honeycrisp and half Rome, which turned out wonderfully.  Of course, other good baking apples can be used.  AND, I used plums for the second batch of this recipe, which were also really lovely.  The ingredients follow the apple crumble recipe.  The topping and technique are the same.

APPLE CRANBERRY PECAN CRUMBLE WITH FARRO
makes 4 6-oz individual ramekins

For the filling:
2 1/2 C apples, peeled and sliced 1/4″ thick
1 C fresh cranberries
1/4 C white sugar
1/8 tsp ground cardamom
1/8 tsp fresh ginger, grated on a microplane
pinch ground cloves
1/2 lemon, juice only

For the topping:
1/4 C farro flour, ground very fine
1/4 C pecans ground fine
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 C light muscovado sugar (or light brown sugar)
pinch salt
2 1/2 tbl cold butter, diced
1/4 cup pecans, roughly chopped

Preheat the oven to 375˚F with the rack on the bottom third shelf.

Cut the apples and mix with remaining filling ingredients.  Allow to macerate while preparing the topping.

For the topping:  Combine all the dry ingredients except for the chopped pecans.  Cut in the butter into the flour mixture, (ideally with a pastry blender).  Or, using your fingertips, combine the butter until the mixture is a very coarse meal.  Its important not to let the butter get too soft or you’ll end up with a ball of dough.  Add in the chopped pecans and mix lightly.

Fill 4 individual 6-0z ramekins with the fruit mixture.  Divide the topping evenly onto the fruit.  (Try to keep chopped pecans off the top as they tend to burn easily.)  Place in the oven and cook until fruit starts to bubble around the edges, about 25 minutes.

NOTE:  These can be made ahead of time and kept in the fridge until baking for a day.

PLUM PECAN CRUMBLE WITH FARRO
makes 4 6-oz individual ramekins

For the filling:
3 1/4 C plums, rough medium dice
1/4 C white sugar
1/8 tsp ground cardamom
1/8 tsp fresh ginger, grated on a microplane (can use powder)
pinch ground cloves
1/2 lemon, juice only

Combine the filling ingredients and allow to macerate while preparing the topping.  Follow the directions as above for topping and baking.

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