Mermaid Kitchen: Crumble

With the end of summer fast approaching and autumn on its way, the brambles are sporting a wonderful crop of blackberries. On our evening walks, we are often taking tupperware pots and coming home with a juicy bounty of blackberries (and purple fingers!). For me this means only one thing: Crumble time!

I love me a good crumble. Apple and blackberry is my favourite. Especially when there is some spare fudge lying around to liberally sprinkle through the topping AND filling. But when is there ever spare fudge? I love crumble hot, cold, plain, with ice cream, for pudding, for breakfast - it is a diverse dish.

After going for a forage last night and liberating some apples from a family garden (our family, I assure you), it was time to crumble! I had some fun making this crumble and not for the usual reasons. A thunderstorm was coming in as I made it, high winds and distant flashes of lightning. I love watching lightning and the wind kept blowing the sugar I was pouring out of the bowl! I don't think I have ever made such a mess when making crumble. Also, my topping ended up more like cookie dough because my butter melted!

But don't worry, I am done waffling and getting to the good bit now. How to make crumble.

 

INGREDIENTS

Topping

• 300g plain flour
• 50g rolled oats
• 220g caster/golden/brown sugar (depends on how crunchy and sweet you want the topping)
• 220g cold butter (cubed)
• Extra oats for decoration

 

Filling

• 500g apples
• 75g blackberries
• 2 tbsp sugar
• Optional: lemon juice
  

 

Full disclosure, I do not measure out my fruit. I just peel until my pan is full and then add blackberries. I even free pour the sugar. These measurements are more for an idea of ratios. But, to be honest, if you want more blackberry than apple in your crumble, you do you.

METHOD

Filling

1. Peel, core, and slice your apples. This is time consuming and messy. I tend to do the apples one at a time so I can toss the slices through some lemon juice. This slows the down the browning. But either method works; one at a time or peeling them all then coring and so forth.
2. Place your slices in a suitable dish for crumble. I.e. Giant and oven proof.
3. When all your apples are peeled, cored, and sliced; add your blackberries.
4. Dowse liberally with sugar.
5. Put to one side while you make the topping.

Topping

1. Measure out your dry ingredients in a big bowl and give them a bit of a mix.
2. Add the butter in small chunks. It does work better if your butter is cold too but I appreciate that in this heat it can go from cold to warm in just a couple minutes.
3. Get your hands in the bowl and rub the ingredients together until they resemble bread crumbs.
4. If you are dealing with warm butter making the crumb more like a dough, chuck in some more oats and stir them through with a fork. Using your hands at this point will continue to bring it all together like a dough than making something more crumby.

Assembling

1. Pre-heat your oven to 180C.
   
2. Pour your crumb mix on top of your fruit.
3. Use a fork to spread it evenly across and fill in any gaps with more oats. You can never have too many oats on a crumble.
4. Go on, sprinkle a bit more brown sugar on the top while you are there. I won't judge.
5. Bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes. It should come out looking golden on the top and with juices bubbling through.
6. You can leave it to cool before serving or you can be a rebel and eat it while it is still blisteringly hot. It's your mouth, but I would advise serving it with ice cream if you do.

One of the things I love about crumble is it is so simple to make. If you have frozen fruit then it is even quick to make! The only time consuming bit then is waiting for it to cook through. Plus, we all know I love a versatile pudding. Crumble works with whatever fruit you have wedged at the back of the freezer! I like to use apple as a base (largely down to an experience with a baaaaaad strawberry crumble) but you really can just put in whatever you like. 

What is your favourite fruit crumble combo? Do you like to forage for fruit? What is the most decadent crumble you've ever made? Lemme know below!

Listening to: All Out 80s