A pinch of chilli is what turns a bowl of strawberries into a dessert worth plating. Maison Bordier bakes a loose almond crumble on Madagascar vanilla butter, blends the strawberries into a coulis with lemon and Korean gochugaru, and puts a spoonful of fresh cheese on top. Nothing is difficult, and the whole thing is about forty minutes of work, thirty of which are hands-off in the oven.
At a glance
- Difficulty: Easy
- Serves: 4
- Active time: About 15 minutes
- Cook: 30 minutes at 150 C (300 F), stirring every 10 minutes
- Key ingredient: Bordier Madagascar Vanilla Butter
Why this works
Bordier's Madagascar vanilla butter came out in 2010: unsalted Breton butter worked with brown sugar and Madagascar Bourbon vanilla. In a crumble it does two jobs at once. The vanilla perfumes the almond, which is a pairing every pastry kitchen relies on, and the brown sugar already in the butter accelerates browning, so the crumble takes on color and caramel notes at a low oven temperature instead of needing high heat.
Baking the crumble loose on a sheet pan rather than over the fruit is the second good decision here. Stirred every ten minutes at 150 C (300 F), it dries into separate crisp pieces instead of fusing into a lid, so it stays crunchy against the raw strawberries underneath. The coulis is the sharp element: raw strawberries blended with lemon juice and a pinch of gochugaru, strained smooth. Chilli against strawberry is not a novelty, it is a way of extending the fruit flavor, and gochugaru is mild and slightly smoky rather than aggressively hot. The spoonful of fresh cheese cools everything down.
Ingredients
The crumble is a straight one-to-one of flour, almond and butter, which makes it easy to scale up if you want extra for the week.
| Ingredient | Metric | US |
|---|---|---|
| All-purpose flour | 125 g | About 1 cup |
| Sugar | 135 g | About 2/3 cup |
| Bordier Madagascar Vanilla Butter | 125 g | 4.4 oz, one block |
| Almond powder (almond flour) | 125 g | About 1 1/4 cups |
| Salt | A pinch | A pinch |
| Strawberries | 500 g | About 1 lb 2 oz |
| Lemon | 1 | 1 |
| Korean gochugaru pepper, or Espelette pepper | 1 pinch | 1 pinch |
| Cottage cheese | 100 g | About 3.5 oz, scant 1/2 cup |
Method
Step 1: Bake the vanilla butter crumble
Melt the Madagascar vanilla butter. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, almond powder, salt and the melted butter. Spread the crumble mixture on a baking sheet lined with parchment. Bake in an oven preheated to 150 C (300 F) for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes so it colors evenly.
Step 2: Make the coulis and plate
Put strawberries, sugar, lemon juice and a dash of chilli into a blender. Blend to a smooth coulis and strain it. Slice the remaining strawberries for plating. Arrange the slices on a plate with a few scoops of the crumble, pour the strawberry and chilli coulis around them, and finish with a tablespoon of cottage cheese on top.
Tips from our kitchen
- Bordier does not say how to split the sugar or the strawberries. The 135 g of sugar and the 500 g of strawberries both appear in the crumble and the coulis without a division. We use 100 g of the sugar in the crumble and hold back about 35 g for the coulis, and blend roughly two thirds of the strawberries, slicing the rest. Taste the coulis before you commit the last of the sugar, since ripe fruit needs less. Those splits are our guidance, not Bordier's.
- Stir the crumble on schedule. Every ten minutes, three times. Left alone, the edges of the sheet darken while the middle stays pale and damp, and the batch dries unevenly. A bench scraper breaks it up better than a spoon.
- Melted butter gives you clumps, not sand. This is a wet crumble, not a rubbed-in one. Expect the mixture to look like coarse wet gravel going into the oven. That is correct. It firms up as it cools, so do not judge the texture until it is off the sheet and at room temperature.
- Strain the coulis, then strain your expectations of it. Strawberry seeds are small and stubborn. A fine chinois or a doubled sieve gets most of them. Push the pulp through with a ladle rather than pouring, or you will leave half the coulis behind.
- Start with less chilli than you think. A pinch means a pinch. Gochugaru is mild and fruity, Espelette is milder still, and both are meant to leave a faint warmth at the back of the throat, not heat. You can always add more, but there is no undoing it in a blended sauce.
- Cottage cheese is the site's word for fromage blanc. If you want the texture in the photograph, use fromage blanc, or a thick strained yogurt or fresh ricotta. Standard American cottage cheese has larger curds and more liquid, and it will run into the coulis.
- Assemble at the table. The crumble goes soft within minutes of touching the coulis. Plate the fruit and sauce, then scatter the crumble last, in front of whoever is eating it.
How to serve it
This is a late spring and early summer dessert, and it only works when the strawberries are genuinely ripe, because there is nowhere for a pale supermarket berry to hide. Serve it in shallow bowls right after dinner, cold fruit against room-temperature crumble. Any crumble left over keeps in a tin and is very good the next morning over yogurt. If you like the sweet-sharp direction, our guide to Alain Milliat jams covers fruit preserves that work the same way.
Where to buy Bordier Madagascar Vanilla Butter in the US
The French Pantry ships Bordier butter across the United States in insulated overnight packaging, straight from the workshop in Brittany.
- Churned Madagascar Vanilla Butter by Bordier (4.4 oz): unsalted Breton butter worked with brown sugar and Madagascar Bourbon vanilla, in the range since 2010.
For the rest of the flavored butters, browse the Maison Bordier collection.
Frequently asked questions
How much vanilla butter do I need for this recipe?
Exactly 125 g, which is one 4.4 oz block. There is nothing left over, so buy a second block if you want butter for toast the same week or plan to double the crumble.
Can I substitute a different butter?
The vanilla is what makes the crumble taste of more than almond and sugar, but the recipe is forgiving. Buckwheat Butter makes a nuttier, more Breton version, and Bordier Salted Butter gives you a plain crumble, in which case skip the added pinch of salt. Keep the weight at 125 g whichever you choose.
Can I use frozen strawberries?
For the coulis, yes, thawed and drained. For the sliced fruit on the plate, no. Frozen berries collapse when they thaw and there is no structure left to slice.
Does Bordier butter need to be refrigerated?
Yes. Bordier butter is a fresh, hand-churned product and ships cold. Keep it refrigerated. Since it goes straight into a pan to melt here, there is no need to soften it first.
How should I store the butter and the crumble?
Wrap an opened block tightly and keep it in the coldest part of the refrigerator, in a closed container so it does not absorb other smells, and use it within about two weeks. Unopened blocks freeze for up to three months. The baked crumble keeps a week in an airtight tin at room temperature.
What can I use instead of gochugaru?
Bordier gives Espelette pepper as the alternative, and it is the better choice if you already have it. Both are mild, fruity chillies rather than hot ones. Avoid cayenne, which brings heat without any fruit behind it.
Related reading
- Madagascar Vanilla Butter Brioche
- Bordier Butter: What It Is, Why Chefs Love It, and How to Use It
- Terre Exotique
Recipe and photograph adapted from Maison Bordier, with thanks. The French Pantry is an authorized US retailer of Bordier butter.