Grunt with Garden Fruit

What is grunt???

Thats the question that almost everyone who I've given this recipe to has asked.  It’s American - I've looked it up and all I can come up with is that a grunt is stewed fruit with a rolled scone topping.  Other names used in the U.S.are slump and here we would call our scone topping a cobbler.  The most important flavour in recipe used here is the cinnamon sugar, which is sprinkled over the rolled dough,then rolled like a Swiss roll and cut into slices which are laid on top of stewed fruit and baked.  The buttermilk gives the grunt and slightly crisp top with a soft centre.  It makes a fantastic alternative to crumble for a Sunday lunch dessert and it can be reheated and frozen.

Serves 6

Ingredients

Butter for greasing

250g / 9oz blackberries

6 ripe plums, stoned and sliced

2 Bramley apples, peeled, cored and cut into small chunks

3-4tbsp caster sugar

For the grunt

200g / 7oz self-raising flour

80g / 3oz butter diced plus 15g / ½ oz – melted

100g / 3½ oz light muscovado sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

5-6 tbsp buttermilk

Heat the oven to 190C / Fan 170 C / Gas 5  Butter a wide shallow ovenproof dish.  Arrange the fruits over the base of the buttered dish, then sprinkle over the sugar.  Cover with foil and place in the oven for 10 minutes while you make the grunt.

Sieve the flour into a food processor and add 80g of the butter.  Pulse until the mixture resembles crumbs, then add half the sugar and pulse again, then turn out into a bowl.  Place the rest of the sugar and cinnamon into a small bowl and stir then set aside.    Add enough buttermilk to the mixing bowl and stir to get a soft dough.  Turn out onto a floured surface, knead lightly and roll out to an oblong roughly 16 x 24cm / 6 ½ x 9 ½ inches.  Brush with melted butter and sprinkle evenly with the spicy sugar.  Roll up from one long side and cut into 12 slices.  Remove the dish from the oven and take off the foil, arrange the rolls of grunt over and around the dish.  Bake for 25-30 minutes until the topping is crisp and golden and the fruit cooked through, you can cover it with foil if it gets too brown. Serve with cream, custard or ice cream.

To get ahead: the pudding can be made a day ahead and warmed through.

To freeze: The dessert can be frozen up to 1 month ahead.