If you want an easy dessert that will WOW your family or party guests, bake this. It is a fabulous combination of crispy-sweet-nutty topping and succulent, fresh-flavoured peaches. I do not peel peaches for pies or crumbles — you keep all the fruit colour, nutrition, and flavour, and it spares you an unneeded step in the process. I bought my in-season South Carolina peaches from the roadside seller where I live in Florida — but you can use any ripe fresh or tinned peaches you have.

For the crumble:

7.5 oz (1 ½ cups) all-purpose flour

1 cup packed light brown sugar

5 oz unsalted butter, melted

½ cup ground almonds

½ cup ground oatmeal

1 teaspoon medium-fine sea salt

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

For the filling:

minimum 5 small or medium peaches (1 ½ lbs), cut into slices* — more as wanted or available

about 1.5 oz /44 grams (⅛ cup) Lyle’s golden syrup or deep-flavoured honey

about 12 ml lemon juice (a bit less than juice of half a lemon)

2 teaspoons Grand Marnier

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground ginger

⅛ teaspoon medium-fine sea salt

* The easiest way to cut up each peach: Slice through the center line, around the pit. Gently twist to separate the fruit into two halves, and remove the pit. Cut each half, face down on a board, with four even strokes (to create five slices of similar size).

In a medium mixing bowl, stir together the dry ingredients, and then pour in the melted butter (put butter in a small bowl and microwave on a medium-low setting for a minute at a time, to make runny).

Find another biggish bowl for the five peaches, sliced as described above. Add the syrup — note that if you have a digital scale, the easiest method is to tare (cancel) the weight of the bowl and the peaches, and then weigh only the syrup (or honey, if using instead) that you pour over the peaches, to get the correct amount. Then add the lemon juice, cinnamon, ginger, and Grand Marnier. With a wooden spoon or a spatula, gently turn the fruit over to distribute the other ingredients evenly.

Pre-heat oven to 375°F/190°C. In a deep-dish pie plate, spoon out the peach slices and cover at an even depth with the crumble. If you are using five peaches, there will be more crumble than you need: the rest can be reserved for another time (refrigerated for a while or frozen). Bake for 45 minutes, when the crumble will be a lovely dark gold and the peach juices will be bubbling.

Allow to cool briefly on a rack. Serve warm, with or without vanilla ice cream or hot custard.