The recipe The last of the plums – garnet red Victorias – baked under a marzipan and almond crumble crust. This deserves a pot of cream to spoon over at the table or perhaps a jug of homemade vanilla custard. Set the oven at 180C/gas mark 4. Lightly butter a baking dish about 24cm x 20cm (or thereabouts). Halve 800g of ripe plums and remove their stones, then put them in the buttered dish. Put 120g of plain flour in a large mixing bowl. Cut 120g of cold butter into small pieces then rub the butter into the flour with your fingertips until they resemble, fine, fresh breadcrumbs. Stir in 75g of ground almonds and 40g of caster sugar. Break 200g of marzipan into small nuggets, about the size of a hazelnut, then stir into the crumble mixture. Tip the crumble on top of the plums, shaking the dish so the mixture is roughly level, then scatter the surface with 3 tbsp of flaked almonds. Bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes until the crumble is pale biscuit coloured and the plum juices are bubbling around the edge. Serve with cream, ice-cream or custard. Serves 6. Some people like their crumble the texture of soft sand. If you prefer a coarser, more pebbled crust, then sprinkle 2 tbsp of cold water over the finished crumble in its bowl, then shake back and forth until you have a mixture of textures, from fine sand to small, buttery pebbles. As summer slides into autumn, think of this with damsons or late greengages. The almond notes are very happy with fresh apricots, too.