Blackberry and Apple Crumble recipe

PUBLISHED: 09:36 29 October 2014 | UPDATED: 10:20 29 October 2014

Blackberries

Archant

Blackberry & Apple Crumble

There’s a reason this is family favourite.

You will need:

4 eating apples, peeled, quartered and cored

2 Bramley cooking apples, peeled, quartered and cored

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

100g soft brown sugar

300g blackberries

And for the the crumble topping:

175g plain flour

140g soft brown sugar

40g porridge oats

180g cold unsalted butter

Then do this:

1. Stir the cinnamon into the sugar, mix your fruit up in a bowl, then tip the sugar mix over the fruit. Shake it around a little to ensure an even coating and transfer it all to a pie dish.

2. To make the crumble topping put the flour, sugar and oats into a bowl and stir well. Cut the butter into small cubes, add to the mixture and rub it in with your fingertips until the mixture is the texture of breadcrumbs. Lay the crumble mixture on top of the fruit.

3. Preheat the oven to 170°C/ gas 3 and bake the crumble for about 35 mins. Check it regularly towards the end of the bake – you want your sugar to go golden, not black.

Blackberry Whiskey

The perfect way to warm those winter cockles.

You will need:

800g blackberries

600g of sugar (reduce this to 450g if your sweet tooth is underdeveloped!)

1 litre whisky (any reasonable blended whisky is fine. Don’t use nasty cheap stuff or expensive malts!)

Then do this:

Put all your ingredients into a large kilner style jar or sterilised bottle and shake, gently, daily for at least one month but the longer the better. After your allotted wait time, drain the liquid into a sterilised bottle (I hang onto the original whisky bottle) and discard the blackberries (or make a really funky crumble!)

Blackberry Coulis

If you love the taste of blackberries, but pips aren’t your thing, try this – perfect over ice-cream or apple crumble.

Mix 250g blackberries with 50g caster sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla extract in a small pan with 100ml water. Bring to a simmer and let it bubble away for five minutes, until the sugar is dissolved and the blackberries have collapsed. Then blend, with a stick blender or food processor, to a puree. Finally push it all through a sieve to remove the pips. Easy!