Blackberry & Apple Crumble
A craggy, golden-brown crust shattering under the spoon to reveal molten purple-black fruit bubbling up the sides, with a thick stream of cold cream pooling into the cracks.
Ingredients
Serves 6- 1 tbspcornflour
- 1 tspground cinnamon
- 75 gcaster sugar
- 600 gapples, peeled, cored and sliced
- 300 gblackberries (fresh or frozen)
- 1lemon, zest and 1 tbsp juice
- 150 gplain flour
- 75 grolled oats
- 75 glight brown sugar
- 125 gunsalted butter, cold and diced
- 25 gflaked almonds (optional) (optional)
- 1 tspvanilla extract (optional) (optional)
- 1pinch fine salt
- 150 mldouble cream
Method
- Heat the oven to 190°C (170°C fan)/Gas 5. Tip the sliced apples and blackberries into a large bowl with the caster sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, cinnamon and cornflour. Toss for a minute of gentle turning until every piece is glossy and evenly coated; the lemon juice keeps the apples bright and sharpens the sweetness so the filling tastes of fruit, not just sugar.
- Transfer the fruit to a 20–22cm ovenproof dish in an even layer. The juices should already be pooling and clinging; that's what bubbles up thick and jammy in the oven, with the cornflour pulling it all into a glossy syrup rather than a watery puddle.
- Rub the cold diced butter into the plain flour and light brown sugar with a small pinch of salt, using your fingertips, until it looks like coarse sandy crumbs with some pea-sized lumps still visible. The salt is important; it lifts the brown sugar and stops the topping tasting flat. Keep the butter cold; warm butter slumps into a paste and you lose the craggy bits.
- Stir the rolled oats through the crumb mix, along with the flaked almonds and vanilla extract if using, so everything is evenly distributed.
- Scatter the crumble over the fruit in a generous, uneven layer, pressing very lightly so it makes contact with the filling but still looks rubbly on top. Resist the urge to flatten it; the peaks and valleys are where the crunch lives.
- Bake for 35–40 minutes, until the topping is deeply golden and crisp and the fruit is bubbling thick purple juices at the edges. If the top colours too fast, lay a sheet of foil loosely over it for the last 10 minutes; you want the topping cooked through, not just browned on the surface.
- Tilt the dish gently to check: the filling should move slowly and glossily, not run like water. Let it sit for 5–10 minutes before serving so the juices settle and thicken; straight from the oven it'll be lava, and the syrup needs a moment to set.
- Spoon the rested crumble into bowls and divide the cold double cream between the six portions.
Per serving
- kcal
- 585
- protein
- 6g
- fibre
- 7.7g
- carbs
- 74.9g
- fat
- 30.5g
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