Jamie Oliver’s pear and blackberry crumble cooks pears, apples, blackberries, stem ginger, orange and butter directly in the air-fryer drawer for 40 minutes, then scatters a crunchy topping of porridge oats, cornflakes, demerara sugar and cinnamon over the fruit and blasts it for another 10 minutes until golden and bubbling. It serves six at 378 kcal and is served straight from the drawer.
The recipe is from Easy Air Fryer (2024). The twist is the topping: instead of the traditional flour-and-butter crumble, Oliver uses porridge oats rubbed with butter, then scrunches in cornflakes for crunch. It’s two breakfast ingredients repurposed as a crumble, and the result is noticeably crunchier than a standard flour topping, since the cornflakes shatter rather than just crumble.
The stem ginger is the other detail that makes this more than a plain fruit crumble. Two balls of stem ginger chopped into the fruit, plus two tablespoons of the syrup from the jar, give the filling a warm, fiery sweetness that runs through every bite. Combined with the orange zest and juice, the fruit base is fragrant and complex rather than simply sweet.
Jamie Oliver Pear & Blackberry Crumble
Course: DessertCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Easy6
servings20
minutes42
minutes378
kcal1
hour2
minutesJamie Oliver’s air-fryer crumble from Easy Air Fryer: autumn fruit with stem ginger and orange, topped with an oat-and-cornflake crumble and baked golden in the drawer. No oven, no baking dish. Serves six with custard, crème fraîche or ice cream.
Ingredients
4 ripe pears
2 eating apples
2 balls of stem ginger in syrup
300g blackberries
100g cold unsalted butter
1 large orange
100g porridge oats
60g demerara sugar
1 pinch of ground cinnamon
100g cornflakes
Directions
- Cook the fruit:Cut the pears and apples into sixths, removing the cores. Finely chop the stem ginger. Remove the shelf from the air fryer and place the fruit, blackberries and ginger inside with a knob of the butter, the orange zest and juice, and 2 tablespoons of stem ginger syrup. Mix together and cook for 40 minutes at 180°C, stirring halfway, until the fruit has softened.
- Make the crumble topping:Place the oats in a bowl, cube up and add the remaining butter, and rub together with your thumbs and fingertips. Add the sugar and cinnamon, scrunch in the cornflakes and mix well.
- Top and finish:Scatter the crumble mixture over the softened fruit and cook for another 10 minutes at 180°C, until golden and bubbling.
- Serve:Dish up straight from the drawer with custard, crème fraîche or ice cream.
FAQs
Why cornflakes in a crumble topping?
They add a crunch that flour-based crumble can’t match. Traditional crumble toppings are flour rubbed with butter and sugar, which bakes into a sandy, crumbly layer. Oliver replaces the flour entirely with porridge oats for body, then scrunches in cornflakes for shatteringly crisp, golden shards on top. Two breakfast ingredients, one genuinely different texture.
The oats absorb some of the fruit juices from below and turn chewy, while the cornflakes on top stay crisp because they’re further from the moisture. That gradient from crunchy top to chewy middle to soft, saucy fruit is the whole appeal.
Can I use frozen blackberries?
Yes. Frozen blackberries go straight in without defrosting and work well, since the long 40-minute cook softens them completely and they release their juice into the filling just like fresh ones. You may get slightly more liquid in the filling, which the cornflour-free topping doesn’t absorb, so don’t worry if it looks saucier.
Fresh blackberries are at their best from August to October in the UK, so this is an autumn crumble by design. Out of season, frozen is the sensible swap, and Oliver’s own team confirms you can switch up the fruit as you like: just apples, just pears, or mixed berries all work.
Why cook the fruit for 40 minutes before adding the topping?
Because the topping only needs 10 minutes and the fruit needs much longer. If you added the crumble at the start, it would burn long before the apples and pears softened. Cooking the fruit first lets it break down, release its juices and meld with the ginger and orange into a proper compote.
Adding the topping at the end means it crisps quickly on top of already-bubbling fruit, staying crunchy rather than going soggy. Oliver tells you to stir the fruit halfway through the 40 minutes, which redistributes the heat and makes sure the pears at the edges don’t overcook while the ones in the middle stay hard.
Can I make this in a conventional oven?
Yes. Tip the fruit, ginger, butter, orange and syrup into a baking dish and cook at 180°C/160°C fan for about 35-40 minutes until softened. Add the topping and bake for another 15-20 minutes until golden and bubbling. It takes a little longer and needs a dish, but the result is essentially the same.
The air fryer’s advantage is speed (the circulating hot air cooks the fruit faster) and convenience (you serve straight from the drawer, no washing up a baking dish). Oliver’s air-fryer method also uses the drawer itself as the baking vessel, removing the shelf so the fruit sits directly in the base.
What should I serve it with?
Oliver suggests custard, crème fraîche or ice cream, and all three work differently. Warm custard is the classic British partner, pooling around the hot crumble. Cold crème fraîche adds a sharp, tangy contrast. Ice cream gives you that melting, hot-and-cold combination.
For a full air-fryer dessert experience, this crumble pairs with his teriyaki pork ribs as a sweet follow-up to a savoury air-fryer main, both cooked in the same appliance. Or serve it after his chicken and sausage stew for a proper autumn comfort supper.
Can I prep it ahead?
You can prepare the fruit filling in advance (chop the fruit, mix with ginger, orange and butter) and refrigerate it, then tip it into the air-fryer drawer and cook when ready. The crumble topping can also be made ahead and stored in an airtight container for a couple of days.
Don’t add the topping to the fruit until you’re ready to cook, since the cornflakes go soft if they sit in juice. The beauty of this recipe is that even without prepping ahead, it’s only an hour from start to table with no hands-on effort beyond stirring once and scattering the topping.
