Apple and Blackberry Crumble

As September is already upon us, I felt it necessary to take myself down to my local park and pick the last of the blackberries. I love these fruits, do you? And apple crumble is a pudding I make quite often, but to put some fresh blackberries into the mix takes the pudding to a higher level. This is truly divine, I promise.

For the filling:

5 eating apples

1 cup of blackberries

2 tablespoons sugar (optional)

For the crumble:

200g plain or self raising flour

110g caster sugar

100g butter or margarine

half a cup flaked almonds (optional)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 150c, or gas mark 2 

Peel, core and slice the apples thinly and put them onto a plate. Sprinkle over a tablespoon of water and microwave for around 2 to 3 minutes, just until they are a little soft.

Put the flour, sugar and butter or margarine into a bowl and mix together lightly until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs. Add the almonds.

Drain excess water from the apples and add to a 5 cm deep square dish. Add the washed blackberries, and then sprinkle over the 2 tablespoons of sugar. (I don’t do this because I like the fruit to taste a little sour, but if you like yours sweeter then add to your taste).

Now pour the crumble mix over the fruit, spread to the sides with a fork and cover. Do this lightly.

Place the pudding into the oven, bottom shelf, and cook for 30 minutes. Please check at regular intervals because if the topping is overcooked and too brown it will be hard. Cooking the crumble slowly will give you the best results.

This serves 8 people. Smaller servings for 10, and 1 whole serving for me!