Almondy, buttery goodness with a layer of soft fruit underneath. What’s not to love, right? This one is easy to make vegan if you use vegan butter and aquafaba to replace the egg.
I love making it in a small, oven safe frying pan because then it’s only two (ish) things to wash up and it also doesn’t take long. There’s something satisfying about starting something off in a pan and then putting the whole thing in the oven to finish off while you go do something else.

Fruit of your choice – I’ve used an assortment of chopped apples, pears, blueberries, persimmon when I had no idea what else to do with one, plums whatever you have. I left the skin on pretty much everything, because it stops the fruit turning to complete mush. Obviously I am not going to peel a blueberry. Frozen fruit is fine too. The topping soaks up extra juices.

Pan/skillet: mine is 20cm/8″ across and 5 cm/2″ deep
Oven: 160C fan, 180C non fan, gas mark 4

3 or 4 eating apples, cored and cut into chunks
1 tsp mixed spice or speculoos spice or pumpkin pie spice
100g butter, softened
100g golden caster sugar
1 egg or 3 tbs aquafaba
1 tbsp plain flour (you can use gluten free flour here too)
120g ground almonds ( I use slightly more than recommended by the dear old BBC but we both really love almonds)
1 tsp almond extract
Pinch of salt

Melt 1 tsp butter in the pan, and then toss the fruit in it until well coated. Sprinkle in whatever ground spice you fancy using. I do not add any sugar at all here as the topping is sweet enough.
Cook the fruit on a low heat until the fruit is semi tender. This is just to give it a head start before going in the oven.
While that is cooking, mix your topping ingredients.
Mix the butter and sugar together until both are well combined. Don’t worry if it feels grainy, the oven will deal with the sugar for you.
Stir in the egg/aquafaba, and the extract, then add the flour, pinch of salt, and then the almonds.
Give it all a good mix so that no dry ingredients remain.
When the fruit has cooled a little, dollop spoonfuls of the almond mixture all over it, and smooth the surface.
I put sliced almonds on mine, but you don’t have to.
Bake for 30-40 minutes or until the top is uniformly golden.
Don’t worry if any juices bubble through, that’s even better!
This is good hot or cold.