Blackberry and apple crumble

Just a quick post to type up my blackberry and apple crumble recipe. For me, blackberry and apple crumble is an autumn must! Having made blackberry and almond crumble squares with some of our foraged blackberry haul, next on the list was proper crumble. I love the combination of blackberry and apple, and crumble is just so easy to make.

My crumble isn’t actually the traditional flour, butter, sugar combination, I follow a recipe from The Good Granny Cookbook, which uses oats rather than flour in the topping and so is more like a chewy, crunchy flapjack on top – delicious! By cooking the fruit in a saucepan first and then reducing the juices, you intensify the flavour and prevent the top from becoming soggy.  The great thing about crumble is that there really aren’t any rules – I tend to throw in a bit of spice and whatever nuts that I have in the cupboard!

As I was visiting a friend who has just had a baby, I split the crumble into two disposable tin foil containers: one for them and one for us! These are great: you can pop them in the oven to bake and once cool, pop the cover on and put them in the freezer. Then, when you want to eat, just pop them straight back in the oven to re-heat.   

Blackberry and apple crumble

Ingredients

1. 700g mix of Bramley apples (peeled, cored and diced) and blackberries (I used 400g blackberries, 300g apple)
2. 60g soft brown sugar
3. 85g golden syrup
4. 85g butter
5. 175g oats
6. 60g hazelnuts / walnuts
7. 1.5 tsp cinnamon

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 175C.
2. Put the fruit in a saucepan with the sugar and enough water to cover the base of the pan.
3. Cook gently until the fruit are soft and the juices running.
4. Taste to check the sweetness – stir through more sugar if needed.
5. Strain off the juice.
6. Put the fruit into the pie dish / foil containers.
7. Return the juice to the saucepan and boil rapidly until reduced and syrupy.
8. Pour the juice over the fruit.
9. Melt the golden syrup and the butter together (easiest done in a microwave).
10. Mix the oats, nuts and spice into the syrup/butter mixture.
11. Spread the mixture gently over the fruit.
12. Bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes until the top is lightly browned.  

Whitehall Garden Centre restaurant, Lacock

Ok, I admit it, I secretly quite enjoy a Sunday afternoon at a garden centre. Not that I’m particularly interested in gardening, plants etc, but these days, garden centres tend to have a great selection of housey/gift bits and bobs, decent farm shops and a good range of cake in the café! 

A few of our houseplants were looking decidedly worse for wear and we had nothing much planned for a wet Sunday afternoon, so we decided to pop along to Whitehall Garden Centre for a potter. Having skipped lunch, we decided to head straight to the restaurant to find something to eat.  The restaurant is fairly standard for a garden centre – fairly large, with lots of fairly cheap, modern wooden tables and chairs. There are large conservatory-type windows overlooking the outside plant section of the centre, so the restaurant is light and airy. As you would expect on a rainy Sunday afternoon, it was busy and most of the tables were filled.

Although we were thinking about lunch, the range of paninis was fairly limited and didn’t really tempt me, the only sandwiches available were packaged and, as we had a big roast planned for the evening, I didn’t want something more substantial, so after much deliberation, we decided just to have a slice of cake. There was a good range of cakes available, including about 4 different gluten-free options. I immediately spotted the one for EHH – an enormous hunk of caramel-covered flapjack. After deliberating between carrot cake, Victoria sponge and apple cake, I decided to go for the apple and cinnamon cake. We also opted for the standard pot of tea for two. In all, the bill came to just under £10, which was fairly respectable.

The tea was standard tea bags in a fairly decent-sized pot. It didn’t come with any additional hot water and the milk jug was fairly small, but the staff were very happy to top up the hot water and provide more milk, when asked. EHH really enjoyed his huge piece of caramel-covered flapjack – it was way too sweet for my tastes but he loved it. My apple and cinnamon cake was rather disappointing: I expect apple cake to be very moist and fruity, this was really quite dry and lacked flavour. The cinnamon icing was too sweet and rather overpowered the rest of the cake.

In all, the restaurant is acceptable but not exceptional. We’d probably pop in again if we were back shopping at the garden centre, but wouldn’t visit specifically for the restaurant.

GBBO Flapjacks

So, second bake of the Great Baking Weekend for EHH’s birthday. Decided to make these flapjacks as they’re quick and easy, and I could make them on the Saturday. The recipe is taken from the GBBO Showstopper Book, under “Ruby Jacks” – but without the ginger. I’ve done them with the ginger and they taste fab – but decided to leave them plain this time as EHH isn’t hugely keen on ginger (although I love it!).

These flapjacks are great – right level of sweetness, crunchy and yet chewy – fab!

I’ve topped some of them with the white chocolate, cranberry and sour cherry topping suggested by the GBBO book (adding also dried blueberries as I had them in the cupboard). The others I finished with a drizzle of lemon icing leftover from the Sticky Ginger Cake made earlier.

Flapjack

Ingredients

1. 115g butter
2. 70g light brown muscovado sugar
3. 5 tblsp / 125g golden syrup
4. 180g porridge oats

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 150C/300F/Gas 2.
2. Line a 20.5cm square tin with baking parchment
3. Put the butter, golden syrup and sugar in a pan.
4. Stir over a low heat until melted.
5. Place oats in a large bowl and pour over syrup mixture, mixing thoroughly to combine.
6. Tip the mixture into the prepared tin and spread evenly, pressing down with the back of a spoon to level the surface (it will be a fairly thin layer).  
7. Bake for 20-30 minutes, until golden brown.
8. Set the tin on a wire rack.
9. Carefully score the mixture into 16 squares, using an oiled knife, then leave until cool.

White chocolate topping:

Ingredients

1. 100g good quality white chocolate
2. 150g mix of dried cranberries, sour cherries and blueberries

Method

1. Chop white chocolate into small pieces and place in a glass bowl.
2. Simmer a small amount of water gently in a saucepan and place the glass bowl over this (ensuring it does not touch the boiling water).
3. Stir the chocolate gently until melted.
4. Spread the chocolate on top of the cooled flapjack squares.
5. Decorate with the dried fruit and allow to set.

Lemon drizzle icing

Ingredients

1. 100g icing sugar, sifted
2. Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
3. Lemon juice

Method

1. Mix together icing sugar and lemon zest, then gradually add lemon juice until you have a smooth, slightly runny icing, adding more juice, if needed.
2. Spoon into a disposable piping bag and drizzle in zig-zags across the cooled flapjacks.