The absolute star of quick and easy baked desserts for one is my Fruit Crumble! Super easy – pile fruit and sugar (with alcohol or lemon juice if you like) into an oven safe dish and top with streusel topping (which I keep in the freezer ready to go).
- 1 minute to prepare.
- 25-30 minutes to cook.
- Voila! Hot and delicious dessert for one!
Hot Dessert for One, Quick and Easy
Years ago, I decided that cooking well for one, for me, would be an important way to make my life better. It has.
Yet desserts can be tricky. Most recipes are for larger items – cakes, tarts and pies that serve 8 or more. Tray of brownies or cinnamon rolls. And the decision is either over eat or throw away homemade delicious food. Not a happy choice to make.
I’ve developed my own recipes to make cakes, pies, brownies, cookies and more for one or for two people. Small enough that I can finish it within two to three days. Large enough that it makes the bake feel like it is worth the effort.
Honestly, I cannot bring myself to make a batch of four cookies.
The Hot Fruit Crumble is a favorite because it is:
- a hot baked dessert, that always hits the spot, and never seems like a compromise
- is truly for one – made in individual size in its own dish
- uses food I always have at home – the fruit or pantry ingredient staples
- flexible to meet the flavor cravings I have that evening – do I want sweet syrupy cherry crumble or sophisticated, moorish blackberry cobbler? I can easily make it exactly how I want it
- takes only 1 minute to prepare and 25-30 minutes to bake – can make it during a TV ad break and eat it piping hot quickly thereafter
It is so delicious and perfectly hot and tasty, that I now also make it for guests. Each person gets their own individual ramekin dessert crumble
Flavors are Endless: Choose Berries, Apple, Pear, Peach and more Crumble
You will never get tired of this delicious hot dessert because you can make it in endless flavors.
Fruit that works best are those that are fleshy enough to hold their texture. These include apples, pears and similar fruit. Also, stone fruit, such as peaches, apricots, plums, nectarines, are perfect to use. And perhaps my favorite are berries – blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries and more are fabulous!
Berries also have the benefit of not having to slice them. Super easy to prep! 👍 And prepared pie fillings take this even a step faster! Great way to make a Cherry Crumble is using a canned cherry pie filling. 😋
Fresh fruit is excellent to use. Also consider frozen fruit such as frozen berries. Fresh at any time and a perfect way to use frozen berries as they become nice and jammy when cooking.
Then think about combining fruit together and you multiply your choices further. Make Razzleberry Crumble for one with a combination of raspberries and blackberries. Try peach apricot for a delicious summer treat for one.
And remember, you can also add spices and flavors. Add cinnamon to apples to warm up the flavor. Add almond extract (or Amaretto liqueur) to cherries to round out their tartness. Use Grand Marnier orange cognac to Strawberries to elevate the flavor.
And I haven’t even yet said the word “chocolate”! Chocolate chips can add a special treat – imagine cherry with a few chocolate pieces. Or add butterscotch chips to apples, or peanut butter chips to bananas.
And what about learning from pecan pie. Finely ground pecans or small pieces of walnuts or almonds can be a lovely enhancement to fruit such as apples and pears.
Be creative! Have some fun! And, come back and share your favorites in the comments. 😋
Crumble or Cobbler? Choose what you Fancy
Crumbles and cobblers are similar desserts. The main difference being the topping texture.
Cobbler topping is close to a thick batter which is lumped on top of fruit. When baked, the topping spreads out into something that looks like cobblestone streets with parts where the fruit peaks out and where the batter meets other lumps of batter.
Crumble uses a streusel topping which has a sandy texture with irregular lumps of butter-sugar-flour. When baked, it keeps its texture and provides crunchy bits of sugary goodness.
Both are wonderfully delicious! I find crumble easier to keep frozen with a good texture ready immediately to use to top desserts. Just pop crumble in a freezer container and you can grab it out in handfuls or break it easily with a fork.
For cobbler toppings, I suggest freezing the batter in “cobbles”. This way you can simply pull out several cobbles and pop them on the top of your dessert. You can freeze batter in ice cube trays, then pop out of the tray and keep in freezer bags/containers.
Macerate Fruit to Elevate and Intensify its Flavor
Maceration is a chemical process that intensifies the flavor of fruit. It simply uses sugar, citrus juice, alcohol or salt to draw out its juices. The process basically bursts the fruit cells and brings the flavor out easier to taste and enjoy.
Fruit, not macerated, is a sad waste of flavor and constrains your delight.
The process is simple. Add sugar to your fruit and let sit for an hour. Done.
You can get more sophisticated about it. Consider the flavors you want to intensify. Would acidity be nice? If so, add lemon juice or lime juice. Would a flavor enhancer be delightful? If so, add liquor with a flavor you want to add.
And most fruit benefits from having sugar added. So you can add multiple macerating ingredients such as sugar and alcohol or sugar and lemon juice.
Once you’ve tried it, you will never leave fruit un-macerated again!
Recommended flavor pairings
So once you become a macerating convert … and you will. You may want to have great choices for macerating – in addition to sugar and lemon juice. There are two liqueurs that stand head and shoulders above the others in their combination with fruit and their versatility – Grand Marnier and St Germain.
Grand Marnier is an orange cognac that has a full bodied and sophisticated flavor which also bounces with brightness from the orange. It is heavily used in French cooking and desserts such as Crepe Suzette and other flambés. At the Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris, it is their “go to” liqueur for macerating fruit for fruit salads.
Grand Marnier is an all-rounder and the primary liqueur I recommend for macerating any fruit. It works beautifully on everything from dark berries to watermelons.
As a cognac, Grand Marnier is full bodied. Sometimes I prefer to have a light, fragrant, almost floral flavor. For that light and summery flavor enhancer, I recommend Elderflower liqueur – St. Germain is the most famous and widely available.
Elderflower Cordial is made with the Spring flowers of elderberry bushes. But it is not heavily floral like lavender or rose. Elderflower liqueur is light, fragrant of Spring and adding a soft, sophisticated flavor to your fruit.
St. Germain is perfect to use to macerate fruit with light flavors such as pears or for succulent fruit like peaches or melons.
Video Tutorial for Fruit Crumble, Streusel Recipe and Flavor Ideas
This recipe is so easy and flexible that one good watch of the video will allow you to make this hot dessert for one anytime you want fast, easy and delicious!
The Fruit Crumble For One Recipe
The full fruit crumble recipe is at the button link below. It is so easy to learn from the video instead – whichever works best for you!
The Streusel Topping Recipe to Freeze to Make Desserts for One Anytime
The streusel topping is essential. And this part really does need to be made with the right measurements, so the full recipe is outlined below.
This is the single woman hack that made sure that I would always have a homemade hot dessert any time I wanted it!
The trick here is to make this big batch and then freeze it to use for the upcoming weeks or months of dessert topping. The recipe only takes 5 minutes to make, so even making the “big batch” is quick and easy.
Then pull the streusel topping out of the freezer, grab a handful to lay over your crumble (or muffins or pies). Pop your dessert in the oven. Yum!
Streusel Topping, Make Ahead
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 cup sugar, granulated or caster
- ½ cup packed brown sugar dark or light
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp salt, kosher or coarse or fleur de sel
- ½ cup butter, diced and cold
Instructions
- Place sugar, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and salt into the freezer bag
- Seal freezer bag and shake to mix well
- Add the chilled butter cubes to the freezer bag
- Seal freezer bag and shake to mix briefly to coat all the butter
- From the outside of the bag, squish together the individual butter chunks with the other ingredients. Break down the butter cubes into small chunks. Texture will be small chunks and moist sandy texture
- Alternatively melt butter and combine all ingredients, you must cool at room temperature and fluff up with a fork to achieve the sandy texture and small cobbles
- Freeze and use whenever desired to top fruit crumble, fruit cobbler, coffee cake, muffins, fruit pies, and more
Video
Notes
Nutrition
What’s Next?
As a single, couple or small family, it is just too easy to waste food. A cauliflower is as big as my head – not exactly a side dish for a single. I have loads of hacks to help avoid food waste, extend the life of your food and make cooking for one or two even easier. Bookmark the Extend Food Life page and build in the habits that help.
Cooking and baking smartly for one is also key. Check the Recipe Round-up for loads of recipes perfect for singles and couples.
Keep inspired by subscribing to Ready and Thriving YouTube channel. Its free and will simply sprinkle your YouTube feed with new, inspiring recipes and life hacks.
Prepare Well. Live Well.
