Peach Mousse with Chocolate Crumple

This was part of the round-up for WHB last week and I thought it was really interesting. And since a get-together BBQ was happening, I decided that I should contribute to desserts!

The recipe was adapted from Cindystar.

Ingredients: 

Serves 8/10 cups:

1 kg peach/apricots (since peaches and apricots are very pricey here in Singapore, I substituted it with canned peaches. Will use half fresh/half canned fruits the next time round.)
70 g butter
70 g sugar

for the crumble: 

100 g finely chopped dark chocolate (use at least 70% cocoa. I used a 74% one for the extra bitterness)
100 g finely chopped naturally baked almonds. Pecans would be great too.
100 g soft butter (salted)
90 g flour
50 g caster sugar
1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

- Drain the canned peaches and put them in a large pan with butter and sugar. Cook about 20 minutes until the butter and sugar melts into a thick syrup on low heat. Set aside some for garnishing and blend the remaining. Let cool and store in the fridge. Add a teaspoon of brandy or cointreau (orange liquer) for the extra kick.

- Mix butter with flour, almonds, sugar and cocoa powder. Use only the tips of your fingers while mixing. The trick is NOT to melt the butter. I used a block of chocolate. Use a chopper to finely chop the chocolate by hand. Do not use a electric chopper. It will melt the block because of the heat. Add chocolate, mix well and let the mixture in the refrigerator to harden. 

- Coarsely spread the mixture on a baking tray (lined with parchment paper) and bake at 150° for about 30/45 minutes. Set your oven on fan mode if you can. Crumble halfway through baking with a fork. Continue baking till the crumble is dry. Take care not to burn the crumble.
- Divide peach cream into cups, cover with the crumble and garnish with a slice of peach.