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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Plum and Walnut Tart. So many people tell me that they can’t make pastry and so wouldn’t try to make a tart. Well this is recipe that allows you to make a tart without making a pastry! It’s a delicious cheat.
Croissant, White Chocolate and Whisky Pudding! You really have to try this as it is just a wonderful pudding at any time of the year. In reality it’s a very smart update on a bread and butter pudding although I suspect far more people will love this.
I always make it part of my Burns Night and St Andrews Day (any excuse). So why is the pudding suitable for a Scottish celebration? The croissants are reminiscent of the “Auld Alliance” and are thrifty because you use them when they are one or two days old. The sultanas are soaked in Whisky (though there is the option to use tea instead should you want to), and the custard is rich with cream and eggs and melted white chocolate and what Scot doesn’t love sweet and rich puddings? Then again don’t we all?
So you’ve got blackcurrants in the freezer, you’ve made blackcurrant jam (yum) and you have started to make cassis, but there are still blackcurrants on the bushes in the garden only now they are beginning to fall off because it’s late in the season and there has been loads of rain! HELP!
Well that’s my story anyway and that’s why I made this fro-yo inspired pud You need an icecream maker and a blender or food processor but the payoff if it’s a ONE (everything blitzed in blender) TWO (chuck in icecream maker to churn) THREE (transfer to freezer) type of recipe. I was going to say “easy pleased, lemon squeezy” but no lemons are involved.
Another crumble recipe? Really? Well, yes! I just couldn’t resist the wonderful combination of the first of the forced pink rhubarb and some of the last of the frozen autumn raspberries. That and a topping of an oaty and nutty biscuity crumble, well, who could resist?
I am a recent convert to crumble as too often I find the topping a bit too claggy and the fruit underneath sparse.
With a husband who simply loves crumble it took years for me to get the balance right so we could both enjoy what seems like the quintessential classic British pudding.
What’s more this is an adaptable recipe. It can be vegan by using a butter replacement (I used the vegan flora) and there are such good vegan cream/custard/icecream available that no one need miss out. If you have someone who has a nut allergy up the flour and oats to replace that 100g of hazelnuts or add some mixed seeds instead. Gluten free flour can be easily substituted for those with an intolerance or coeliac. Everyone gets a look in.
Cut rhubarb
Autumn is well and truly here and with that comes the time for crumble. This recipe sees deep jewelled magenta plums spiked with sloe gin, bubbling through a golden knobbly, textured crumble that is laced with toasted oats and hazelnuts
I know everyone thinks of crumble as an easy, ordinary dish but I think with the few extra tweaks here it becomes something amazing. Sloe gin and hazelnuts are a marriage made in heaven. The two types of sugar really add to the depth and texture of the crumble and the toasty flavour you get from the oats and demerara sprinkled on top are worth it for the smell alone I add, perhaps surprisingly, a few leaves of fresh thyme to the crumble mix which just work in a way you just can’t place This recipe really is the embodiment of the “mellow fruitfulness” in Keats’ ode To Autumn
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