Apricot Sour Cherry Crumble

It's crumble time baby!  I love crisps and crumbles.  I don't really know the difference so I name my desserts as the day leads me.  Yesterday was a crumble day.  Life has been spinning a web around me lately and so crumble seemed appropriate.  I decided to make a stone fruit crumble because I had them in my freeze.  I think I told all of you about my fruit hoarding disease.  I just can't seem to let them out of the freezer and then the fruit gets freezer burn, well last night I made a break through.  I opened the freezer and took out some apricots and sour cherries.  Last year was a particularly good apricot year so I froze a bunch.  They were so fragrant and juicy last year.  It was really hard to believe how taste-y they were.  (Side note - my parents are from Serbia and they always tell me how the fruit of their childhood was nothing like today's tasteless mealy messes.  I image apricots of their youth tasted like the apricots of last year and let me say - they are right!)
I wanted to try something new with my crumble.  I wanted to know if I substitute the tapioca or cornstarch with Bird's Custard Powder, would I get a creamy, vanilla scented crumble.  I knew that custard powder had corn starch in it and so I tried it.  It worked great.  I loved the flavor and the texture and I definately noted a creaminess that really added depth to the dessert.

Apricot and Sour Cherry Crumble

3-4 cups fruit (in this case apricot and sour cherry)
1 heaping T. Bird's Custard Powder
3 T. brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla paste
1 c. quick oats
1 1/2 c. crushed cookies
1/2 cup almonds
1 stick butter, melted

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Combine the fruit, custard powder, sugar and vanilla paste in a bowl.  Spoon fruit mixture in individual oven safe dishes. 
Combine melted butter, cookie crumbs, and oatmeal in a bowl.  Stir well.  Spoon over fruit mixture. 
Place dishes on a parchment lined cookie sheet and bake for 35-45 minutes.
Enjoy plain, with whipped cream or ice cream!

Please note that these types of desserts are as flexible as their names.  You can use any fruit with any flavoring, cookie or nut.  Feel free to play around with it.