Blackberry And Apple Crumble

At the end of the summer blackberries grow in abundance along the entire length of the Bristol to Bath Cycle path. It would be a shame for a hungry cyclist to pass up the chance of some very cheap, high calorie nutrition. ;-) Below is a free Blackberry And Apple Crumble recipe from Nigel Jones - Head Chef in the Machinehead Software Canteen.

The Fruit

Vegetarians: Put the blackberries into a bowl of water for a few minutes. Any added protein will swim to the surface and can easily be separated from the blackberries! Next put the blackberries in a sieve and pour a kettle of boiling hot water over them. Allow them to drain while preparing the apples. Peel, core and thinly slice 2 large tart apples (Bramleys are ideal but anything will do).

Fill a Pyrex casserole dish nearly to the top with layers of apple and blackberries (squash them down a bit if they don't fit). Sprinkle some soft brown sugar over the fruit, then sprinkle a good generous squeeze of lemon juice. Place the dish and the fruit in a preheated oven (about 180 deg.C). This allows the fruit to pre-cook slightly while the crumble is being prepared.

The Crumble

Weigh up about 5 ounces of plain flour, 2 ounces soft brown sugar, 1 ounce castor sugar, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon and 100 grams of ground almonds. Mix together and combine with about 100 grams of butter. Keep mixing until the mixture is evenly crumbly.

Take the dish out of the oven and spoon the crumble mix evenly on top. Return to the oven for about 30 minutes then serve with custard or ice cream. The above will serve 3 greedy cyclists or an infinite number of anorexics!

The Custard

Put about ½ pint of milk (per person) into a measuring jug. Pour most of this into a saucepan and place on the hob to boil. To the remaining milk add 1 heaped table spoon of custard powder and a flat table spoon of sugar and mix to a smooth paste in the jug.

When the milk boils pour it into the jug, give it a quick stir, then pour it back into the saucepan and put it back on the hob! Stir it like the clappers it will thicken quickly! Next pour it back into the jug and serve from here. (It won't continue thickening or go lumpy in the jug).

Blackberries | The Bath To Bristol Cycle Path | Jones The Chef | Frog Recipes