Blackberry and Apple Almond Crumble

Blackberry and Apple Almond Crumble is surely one of the best puddings going!   Early in the season when the blackberries are at their plumpest is the time to pick, cook, pickle, freeze as many as you can.   These are the heady days of foraging and harvesting from the garden when you just want to make the most of everything and prepare for the colder and leaner months ahead.    But that doesn’t mean you don’t deserve a treat and to miss out now – and this comforting, homely crumble is just that, taken to a whole new level with the addition of almonds to the crumble.

It’s difficult to give exact quantities of apples and blackberries here as I tend to use windfall apples and whatever blackberries I’ve managed to find rather than weighing out exact quantities, and I sweeten to taste remembering that the crumble is sweet in itself and the fruits own natural sugars vary depending on the weather.    So I’ve given a guide amount to give you an idea.  The crumple topping works really well with other fruit too of course!   And according to my husband, any leftover crumble makes a fine breakfast!  Now you just have to decide whether you want to serve your crumble with custard, cream, icecream …….

Ingredients (serves 6)

For the compote

• 5 Bramley apples
• 300g blackberries
• ½ lemon, juiced
• 20g butter
• 150g caster sugar

For the crumble

• 110g plain flour
• 110g ground almonds
• 120g cold butter
• 80g soft light brown sugar
• 20g rolled porridge oats
• handful flaked almonds (optional)
• 2 tbsp demerara

Method

1. Peel, core and chop the apples, dividing each quarter into 4/5 wedges and tossing the lemon juice so they don’t discolour.
2. Melt butter in large saucepan, add apples and 2tbsp water, put on lid and cook gentle till apples collapse.  You may need to stir occasionally in case heat is too high and apples stick remove from heat and add sugar to taste.  Stir in blackberries gently and put compote into bottom of crumble dish.  Add a few tbsp water if compote looks dry but remember blackberries will give out a fair amount of juice in the final cook.
3. Make crumble by combining flour and almonds in a bowl.  Take the cold butter and dip in mix regularly whilst grating it and stirring in (you can just cube it if that works better for you).  Rub to combine to a sandy texture but don’t be too precious about this as a few lumps make for a lighter crumble.   Add brown sugar and porridge oats and combine.   Pile on top of fruit and sprinkle with flaked almonds and demerara sugar.
4. Bake the Blackberry and Apple Almond Crumble at 175c fan for 30 mins until crumble is lightly browned and fruit juices are bubbling round the side.
5. Leave for 10 mins before serving so it cools and doesn’t burn the roof of your mouth as you greedily gobble it down!

Have you tried our  Plum, Hazelnut and Sloe Gin Crumble recipe?   It is a strong contender for the crumble crown?

This recipe first appeared on https://www.lilaccottageshop.com/