I just spent a few days in France to visit my family and friends for some early holiday catch-up. Paris is an amazing city for all things culinary and I had a great time looking for new kitchen ramekins and some new cookbooks. I was happily surprised to get an early christmas present from my friend Olivia.. a cookbook filled with countless crumble combinations!

I hear that North Americans enjoy their crumbles with oats. I have had a few apple and peach crumbles topped with oats here and while I do enjoy them, they are quite different from the crumbles I enjoyed growing up. I have also been exploring some savory recipes for crumbles featuring cheese, spices and herbs… so I wil probably be sharing some of those with you in the weeks to come.

This crumble was really easy to put together. The bubbly chocolate, the sweet pears and the golden brown crumble topping were also quite enjoyable as a breakfast treat for early morning jetlag..

Recipe adapted from Heloise Martel (for 4 individual ramekins)
1/2 cup of flour
1/4 cup of butter at room temperature
2 tablespoons of brown sugar
A pinch of salt
3 Bartlett pears
100 g semi-sweet good quality chocolate
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
100 ml of whipping cream

Preheat the oven to 410 F. In a pan, bring the cream to a simmer and add the chocolate in small pieces. Take it off the heat and stir until the chocolate is melted and add the vanilla. Set aside.
In a bowl, crumble the butter, flour, brown sugar and salt. The mixture should form tiny pieces of dough. Cut the pears into bite-size pieces and place an equal amount into the buttered-ramekins. Divide the chocolate between the ramekins and pour over the pears. Add the crumble pieces to each. Cook for 25-30 minutes, or until the crumble is golden brown. Enjoy!