HOW TO MAKE A BLACKBERRY CRUMBLE
Blackberry crumble is the very epitome of autumn fruitfulness! You just can’t beat wandering the lanes and by ways on a sunny afternoon, searching out the plump, juicy berries which is what I was doing Sunday with darling daughter and little Anniekins.
They are quite something around us this year which is probably just as well as you need to pick them before Michaelmas, (29th September) otherwise folk lore has it, the devil spits on them and they become inedible!
Personally, I don’t give a hoot! I pick them until the frost kills them off and devil or no, have yet to come to any harm! Well if you discount the odd scratch or two that is and a few pulled threads in your jumper … and the bee that dropped down DD’s wellie and my ricked back from carrying little Anniekins … Oh never mind …
Here’s my version. I don’t care for pounds and ounces as I like my cooking to contain a surprise or two. It might be the odd grub, but hey! At least it’s organic!
FOR THE FILLING
Blackberries of course! I half fill my biggest dish!
Sugar – 3 or 4 tablespoons
FOR THE CRUMBLE
4 tablespoons of plain flour
4 tablespoons of self raising flour. (Use 8 of either if you like, still tastes great!)
Half a block of butter or hard margarine. Easier to use if you’ve had it in the fridge.
2 tablespoons of sugar
METHOD
Put flour into a bowl and rub in the butter or marg until it looks like fine breadcrumbs.
If you’ve got a food processor which I have, use this, but watch your fingers! Mine has a broken lid and works even though there is supposed to be a safety mechanism in place! Pulse it rather than let it spin. Takes 4 or 5 seconds.
Stir in the sugar.
Wash the blackberries and fish out any grubs. If you don’t do this your other half is bound to get the portion with the little devils in and you will never hear the end of it!
Sprinkle the sugar over the fruit. No need to stir it in. It will get absorbed in the cooking.
(For a special treat you can add a drop of brandy to the blackberries or maybe a liquor. We had a blackberry flavoured one in the cupboard for a while. It didn’t last long because I discovered how nice it was. Too nice to waste on blackberries in fact! Hic!)
Where was I? Oh yes, top with the crumble mixture. Seal edges so the juice doesn’t escape.
Cook at 180 deg C for about 45 minutes, until the crumble is lightly browned.
Serve with custard, fresh cream, ice-cream or natural yoghurt.
Sit back and tuck in while watching this video where I wax lyrical about
- Love the taste but not the pips so generally turn ours into bramble jelly, a staple of my childhood where we picked blackberries and often crab apples to make it although preferred it made with windfall apples (watch out fo the wasps in those.) Our oldest grandson absolutely adores apple crumble and earlier in the holiday our daughter let him try making it for himself. In his version he rolled the pieces of apple in crumble and it worked surprisingly well. I think he would find this difficult to do with blackberries though.
- When I took my children walking at my parents' (who happen to live in the middle of nowhere, a ВЈ22 taxi ride out of Stafford) we found a few along the roadside but I was a little afraid to let them eat many because of the position. Would they have hurt?
I've made many a crumble but never blackberry, I shall now try! - It's my job to go and collect blackberries each year. Our frozen stock lasts well into the New Year. A neighbour delivered a large box from his wife's allotment earlier this week. They are lovely with fresh fruit. The crumble is due later.
The spot where I normally pick them has been decimated by the local council weed killing in the hedge bottom and it's too early yet to find many to pick, - What a lovely piece and poem! I'll miss it, we used to have an orchard so blackberry and apple crumble was a staple dessert courtesy of the freezer year round. I've read that blackberries were introduced to Australia and are (as usual) a nuisance because they oust the local vegitation, but I haven't seen any. Mind you, I must have been reading too many thrillers recently as the first thing to spring to mind on reading the title was interrogation techniques on aggregate fruits... Did you know there are nearly 400 types of blackberry? Insane!
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