Blackberry and apple crumble

Autumn has well and truly arrived. The weather on Sunday was horrible and it was decided in the Little Birdie household that it was most definitely crumble weather.

It was a proud day as it was the first time we picked apples from our apple tree to use in the crumble. It has been in the garden for just over a year and was only a cheap tree from Aldi so we have been impressed that anything has grown. The blackberries were also freshly picked from just behind our house so the filling came from less than 20 metres from our kitchen - an impressive feat!  We are disappointed that we will have to leave it when we move house this week.

This is a Jamie Oliver recipe from his 'The Naked Chef' book. It is my go to crumble recipe that always goes down well. You can use any fruit or combination of fruit that you want. Apples, pears, berries, plums, peaches, rhubarb - the possibilities are endless. 

Ingredients:

Crumble

225g plain flour

115g butter

90g sugar

pinch of salt ( I quite often forget this!)

Fruit

455g fruit (washed and prepared)

3 tablespoons sugar

Method:

1) Preheat your oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6. Put the crumble ingredients in a food processor or mixer and blitz until it resembles fine breadcrumbs (You can do this by hand - just rub the mixture between your hands). 

2) Put the fruit into a shallow ovenproof dish and sprinkle with sugar. 

3) Spread the crumble mixture over the prepared fruit and give the dish a shake. 

4) Bake in the oven for about half an hour or until the top is evenly golden. (If it starts to go darker around the edge, turn the oven down a little.

5) Enjoy! (With cream, custard or ice cream - mmmm!) 

Mixed Berry Plaited Pie

I will start today's post with a confession. I am a hoarder. I find it difficult to throw things away. In the process of moving I have had to address this (well I like to think I have addressed it!) Whilst packing I have had to sort through many food magazines. At various points over the last few years I have had subscriptions to Delicious, Good Food and Olive and had kept them all. My husband was not going to let me pack up and move boxes of magazines but I didn't want to throw them away. The solution to my reluctance to throw these away - to rip out all the recipes I liked the look of or thought I might like to make one day in the future. I now have a lever arch folder fit to burst with recipes. It was when I was ripping and filing that I spotted this recipe. I am a bit obsessed with blackberry recipes at the moment and this not only contained blackberries but also looked pretty impressive.

This is an Olive recipe that you can find on the BBC Good Food website here. It is a cross between a pie (it has a pastry base and pastry twists on top) and a cake. It is very easy to prepare as you make both the base and filling in a food processor (I didn't even bother washing it out!)

Ingredients:

100g butter (softened)
2 tablespoons golden caster sugar (plus extra for dusting)
200g plain flour
1 egg (beaten)
1 x 375g pack ready-rolled shortcrust pastry
plain flour (for dusting)

Filling:
150g butter (softened)
150g golden caster sugar
50g ground almonds
3 eggs
150g self-raising flour
250g mixed berries (I used raspberries, blueberries and blackberries)

Method:
1) Heat the oven to 180C/Fan 160C/Gas 4 and line the base of a brownie tin approximately 20cm x 30cm (I used a roasting tin slightly larger than this and it was fine). In a food processor whizz together the butter, sugar and flour until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Add the egg and whizz until it looks like coarse breadcrumbs.

Tip into the tin and press firmly to make an even layer (I struggled at this point - so much so my husband said I would never survive on the Great British Bake Off! It was difficult to press the pastry so I had to take the paper out of the tin and roll the pastry using a rolling pin to roughly the right size before putting the paper back in the tin.)

Chill the pastry base while you make the filling.
2)  Whizz the butter and sugar in a food processor until combined.

Add the ground almonds, eggs and flour until smooth. Pour over the base and spread with the back of a spoon.
3) Scatter over the mixed berries to cover the top.

4) On a lightly dusted surface unroll the pastry and cut into 18 lengths (short strips rather than long).

Arrange half, spaced out on top of the fruit, twisting each strand on the diagonal. Then repeat with the remaining lengths but in the opposite direction. Trim the overhanging pastry. Sprinkle with extra sugar, about 2 tablespoons.

5) Bake for 40 minutes until light golden. Cool a little before removing from the tin. Serve warm.

Blackberry and apple crumble muffins

The end of summer is fast approaching and autumn is in sight. The days are getting shorter, the summer holidays are nearly over (to the delight of parents and the despair of teachers) and blackberries are appearing. I spent Sunday afternoon wondering around the local area picking blackberries to use in my latest baking adventure. After trawling the Internet I found many options: blackberry and almond meringue cake, blackberry sourdough scones, blackberry and apple muffins and even bramble marshmallows. In the end I opted for a recipe from the Delicious Magazine website for blackberry and apple crumble muffins which you can find here.

The recipe works well and produces muffins that are moist. I particularly like the bursts of bright purple created by the blackberries. If I was to make these again I would cut the chunks of apple a little smaller and possibly use a dessert apple instead to add a little more sweetness.

The recipe makes 12 muffins and you will need a 12-hole muffin tin lined with paper cases.

Ingredients:

For the muffins 
300g plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
190g caster sugar
210ml milk
1 large egg  (beaten)
100g butter (melted)
Zest of 1 large lemon (finely grated)
1 large Bramley apple
150g blackberries

For the crumble topping
15g butter (at room temperature)
25g plain flour
15g demerara sugar

Method:
1) Preheat the oven to 200C/Fan 180C/Gas 6 and line a 12-hole muffin tray with paper muffin cases.
2) First make the crumble topping. Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Rub in the butter 

Stir in the sugar and work the mixture with your fingers until it forms nuggets.

Stir in the sugar 

3) For the muffins, sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a mixing bowl and stir in the sugar. In a separate small bowl, beat the milk with egg, melted butter and lemon zest.

Mix together the dry ingredients

Beat together the wet ingredients and lemon zest

4) Peel, quarter and core the apple, and cut into blackberry-size pieces.

5) Stir the wet mixture into the flour and sugar mixture until combined (it's fine if it's still a bit lumpy). Stir in the apple and blackberries.

6) Spoon the mixture evenly into the paper muffin cases and sprinkle over the crumble topping.

7) Bake for 20-25 minutes until risen and golden. Cool for 5 minutes and preferably serve warm (and maybe with a dollop of custard or cream if you're feeling decadent?)

Happy baking (and blackberry picking!)
Dil :-)

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