Rhubarb crumble and custard

This is so simple as to hardly be a recipe. I've not included quantities just ratios where applicable as this really is a store cupboard / fruit bowl fave and works wonderfully with any fruit (or combinations).  This one definitely makes it onto my death row dessert list...

Ingredients

Rhubarb (or other fruit of your choice, I actually added orange and apple to the one pictured here) with sugar added to taste, rhubarb takes a lot!
Plain flour
Half the flour quantity of fridge cold salted butter
Equal quantity of caster sugar (brown or white) to butter

And for the custard...

4 egg yolks
1 pint of milk (ideally full fat)
1 vanilla bean or 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract / paste (it's the star of the show here so avoid nasty chemical essence if possible)
2 tablespoons of caster sugar
2 teaspoons of cornflour

Method

1) Prepare your fruit first, cut into chunks and add (raw) with an appropriate amount of sugar to an ovenproof dish, remember that you have sweet crumble and custard going on top and so depending on your tastes a little tart isn't the end of the world.

2) Preheat the oven to 180C.

3) Make your crumble topping by rubbing together the cold butter, flour and sugar until they resemble breadcrumbs (ie no raw flour but still some chunks of butter).

4) Add enough topping to cover the fruit completely and put in the oven for 30-40 minutes, turning up the heat at the end if the top's not browning.

5) Whilst the crumble's in the oven make your custard.  Heat the milk and vanilla to almost simmering point and whisk together your egg yolks, sugar and cornflour.  Add the milk to the eggs, whisk to combine and place back on the heat until thickened (do not boil unless you like sweet scrambled eggs) as soon as the custard's thickened remove from the heat and strain into a bowl / jug to stop it cooking further.

6) Eat and enjoy.

I use salted butter in my topping as I like that slight seasoning, but use unsalted if you prefer.  Custard's an essential with crumble and I find the above method the easiest way to avoid disaster, purists would remove the cornflour and add extra egg yolks but this is less stable, scrambles very easily and frankly, life's just too short.

As ever with my food, this may not win any beauty pageants or be particularly "cheffy" but it's simple and delicious!