Ravneet Gill's Recipe for Pear and Hazelnut Crumble | The perfect place

Pears and hazelnuts make an excellent pairing: it's a classic combination that I always come back to, in pavlovas, pies, crumbles and cakes. Today it's a hybrid crumble-cake with pears and hazelnuts for which we make an oatmeal crumble (be careful, it's extremely greedy on its own) that we sprinkle on it before baking.

Pear and hazelnut crumble cake

Preparation 30 minCooking 1h30 +10-12 people

For the crumble50g wholemeal flour50g giant oats40g brown sugar20g coarsely chopped hazelnuts80g cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes

For the cake dough125g softened unsalted butter125ml rapeseed oil or other neutral oil200g caster sugarZest of ½ lemonA pinch of salt4 eggs150g plain flour100g wholemeal flour2½ tsp baking powder300g pears, peeled, cored and cut into 2-3cm cubes

Heat the oven to 180C (160C fan)/350F/Gas 4 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

For the crumble, mix the ingredients dry ingredients in a large bowl, then add the cold cubed butter and, using your fingertips, rub in until the mixture looks like coarse breadcrumbs. Pour this mixture onto the lined tray and bake for 25-35 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool slightly, then break into a crumbly mixture and set aside while you prepare the cake batter.

Line the bottom and sides of a 20cm cake pan parchment paper. In a large bowl with a wooden spoon, or in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment attached, mix the butter, oil and sugar for five to seven minutes, until smooth and pale. Add the lemon zest and salt, mix again, then incorporate the eggs one by one. In a second bowl, combine the flours and baking powder, then add to the cake batter.

Stir the chopped pears into the batter, then pour into the prepared pan and top generously with crumble mix. Bake in the middle of the oven for 50 minutes to an hour and 10 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean. Remove from the oven, let cool and serve with fresh cream, single cream or custard.