Nigel Slater’s midweek treat: buttered quinces, almond crumbs

Photograph Jonathan Lovekin

Serves 4. Ready in 45 minutes.

Peel, halve and quarter 1.5 kg of small quinces. If yours are of the large, knobbly variety, then cut them into thick segments. Gouge out the core and seeds with a teaspoon. If your quinces are hard, you may have to resort to a small knife. Either way, rub them with a cut lemon as you go, to stop them discolouring.

Put 1.5 litres of water and 100g of golden caster sugar into a large saucepan and bring to the boil, add the quinces and let them cook for 15-25 minutes, depending on their size and ripeness. The quinces are done when you can easily pierce them with a metal skewer.

Heat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4. Make the crumbs by creaming together 100g each of butter and demerara sugar. Then mix in 75g of plain flour and 75g of jumbo oats, ½ tsp of salt flakes and 25g of flaked almonds.

Scatter the crumb mixture over a baking tray and bake for 20-25 minutes until crisp.

Remove all but 200ml of the quince syrup from the saucepan, then add 40g of butter to the pan, turn up the heat and let it reduce until the quinces are almost caramelised and only a little syrup is left.

Spoon the quinces into a dish. Put the pieces of almond crumb into a plastic bag and smash to rough crumbs with a rolling pin. Scatter the almond crumbs over the quinces.

• Pears work here, too, and this is a good way to deal with those that refuse to ripen. Choose firm or even hard fruits rather than those that are ripe.

• Once made, the almond crumbs will keep in an air-tight container for a few days. They can be used with sundaes, ice-cream, or to top a sponge pudding, with the crumbs and nuts sticking neatly to the sponge’s hat of jam or syrup.