The humble fruit crumble is a British dessert classic and can be enjoyed all year round with lashings of custard, ice cream or fresh cream.

One of the most popular choices of filling is rhubarb as it offers a delicious tartness to offset the sweet flavour of the crumble topping.

If you haven’t made a crumble before, it's one of the more straightforward desserts to master, but Jamie Oliver says it’s important to follow a key rule to create the perfect pudding.

The acclaimed celebrity chef says a crumble topping should be crispy rather than greasy, and needs to have the right fruit to crumble ratio to avoid a soggy top.

One easy way to get this right, according to Oliver, is to keep your butter cold and avoid pressing your crumble topping down when you spread it over the rhubarb.

Writing on his website, Oliver explains: “For the perfect crunchy texture, keep your butter nice and cold and keep the crumble loose when covering the filling rather than pressing it down onto the rhubarb. You can make the crumble in advance and keep it in the fridge or freezer, if you like.”

The Channel 4 chef adds that it’s also important not to overwork the flour and butter when making the crumble tipping, as this can cause the mixture to become greasy rather than crunchy.

This is because the butter will start to become softer the more you handle it, so you need to work quickly to help keep it nice and cool for that delicious crispy texture.

Oliver says: “The crumble brings texture and the taste of shortbread and pastry without the effort of making it. As with pastry and shortbread though, it’s important not to overwork the flour and butter so that your crumble is crispy rather than greasy.”

Ingredients

For the filling:

For the crumble topping: