Blackberry and apple crumble

THIS is my easy-to-make crumble, perfect for any falling fruit! Here I’ve used apple and blackberry, but any fruit will do – try pear, rhubarb, raspberry etc. If fresh fruit is not readily available try frozen or tinned fruit in natural juice.

Ingredients:

500g Blackberries

1.5kg Baking Apples

100g Caster Sugar

300g Flour – 150g Plain Wholemeal & 150g Self Raising 100g Butter

60g Digestive Biscuits

60g Ginger Biscuits

75g Porridge Oats

50g Demerara Sugar

40g Ground Almonds

1 tsp Cinnamon

This recipe makes enough crumble for TWO x 8” round Pyrex dishes – one to use, one to freeze!

Recipe:

Peel, core and cut the apples into small chunks.

Place the blackberries and caster sugar in a small pan and cover with water to just below the surface of the fruit. Bring to a gentle boil, before simmering for 15 minutes stirring all the time.

Once soft, split the fruit between the two Pyrex dishes to cool down.

Meanwhile to make the topping: Sift the flours together in a bowl.

Rub the butter into the flour with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Crush the biscuits together and stir into the mixture along with the oats and ground almonds. Add approximately four tablespoons of water to this mix in order to slightly change the consistency to coarse and lumpy rather than fine. Spoon the mixture over the top of the fruit.

Finally sprinkle with the cinnamon and Demerara sugar. To protect during freezing, carefully wrap one of the puddings up in cling film and put straight into the freezer.

Bake the other for 25 minutes in a moderate oven until slightly golden. Serve hot with ice cream or piping hot custard! Enjoy!

Healthy? This beautiful crumble is certainly fibre-rich. Both these fruits contain respectable amounts of vitamin C, Apples also contain pectin, a compound found to aid digestion and promote fullness.