Blackberry Fool used to be one of my favourite treats towards the end of the Summer Holidays. We would have been out with a picnic to go blackberry picking and have returned home with lots of blackberries. Some would be frozen, ready to be used in crumbles later in the year. Some would be held in the fridge ready to make jam the next day. But a few, a precious few, would be magicked into a fool for that night’s supper. Bliss.
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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.
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This lemon sorbet uses three types of lemon flavours – lemongrass, lemon verbena and lemon zest. Using all three makes for an absolutely stunning sorbet. I can’t begin to tell you how much of a stunner and how well balanced this recipe is. Quite frankly, it’s more refreshing than a swim on a hot summer’s day! If you don’t have any of the lemon ingredients you can just ramp up the quantities of the other two, but honestly, do try this as it’s written if you can.
The texture of of a ripe pear when you bite into it is like nothing else. It’s slightly grainy against your teeth yet soft and yielding. Its lightly perfumed and so juicy it runs down your chin despite your best efforts. Sadly most of the pears we buy aren’t anything like that as pears do not properly ripen on the tree. They ripen once picked from the inside out so if you grow and pick your own they all seem to ripen at the same time or else fall off the tree and bruise. One solution to these problems is to poach the pears whilst they are still slightly firm so that not only does the pear turn juicy and flavourful but, kept in the poaching syrup, they will keep for several weeks in the fridge. It’s a win win.
Pear Harvest