Feijoa Crumble

Before moving to New Zealand, I have never come across the fruit feijoa nor have I heard of it. Now, we live in a house with two big feijoa trees and eventually have to learn how to eat it and make something nice out of it.

Feijoa is similar to guavas. It has a tropical-fruit-like taste to it but is not a tropical fruit at all. This fruit can only be found in southern Brazil, New Zealand, Uruguay, northern Argentina, some places in South Carolina, and parts of Colombia (for more information, Wikipedia has a good read about it).

Autumn is when the tree/shrub starts to fruit. Fruiting can go on for at most a month and when they do, you really get heaps of them that you won't know what to do (well, I freeze them and have a supply of feijoa all year round). Here's a recipe of a crumble made with feijoas.

Feijoa Crumble
Serves 8

Ingedients
30 medium to large sized feijoas
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup water
200 grams butter
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup ground almonds
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Procedure

1. Pre-heat the oven to 170'C
2. Peal and slice feijoas (thickness doesn't really matter), add the brown sugar and water
3. Combine butter, flour, ground almonds, baking powder and cinnamon and mix till it crumbles in your hand or has a breadcrumb-like texture to it
4. In an oven-proof dish, sprinkle a bed of the crumb mixture (about 1/3 of an inch). Please take notice not to flatten it! Sprinkle it like you would a breadcrumb.
5. Add the feijoa mixture on top then cover with the remaining crumb mixture on top, sprinkling it the same way as above.
6. Bake for 45 minutes or until topping has turned brown and has a pastry-like texture to it.

This can be served hot or cold with a dollop of cream, yoghurt or custard on top. This recipe can also be made with a combination of apples, mango, and other fruit you like.

Enjoy!