Do you have a freezer full of blackberries?
If not, then ignore the blackberry & enjoy your apple crumble!

This time of year, mid-November, is hefty with apples.
Down here in sunny Somerset, the late blackberries are only recently all gone from the bushes. If you have helpful kids around, chances are you have bags of frozen blackberries to work through.

But apples, oh goodness, there are apples everywhere: mid-season apples have been harvested, their remains are filling the larder, and most late-season apples are ready to pick all around us.

A snappy-crisp, wake-me-up sharp Adams Pearmain, or a cooking apple like Crawley Beauty, which bakes to a soft purée, are perfect for this, but as long as you aren't scrumping a cider apple it will work out fine!

The recipe below uses slightly less sugar than average, we love it a bit tart: add lots of thick double cream to compensate!

Ingredients for fruit mixture

• 250g freshly picked blackberries (or just more apples!)
• 5 medium sized cooking apples (peeled, cored & chopped)
• Zest of 1 Lemon
• 50g caster sugar

Ingredients for crumble

• 75g ground almonds
• 125g unsalted butter (softened)
• 175g plain flour
• 60g demerara sugar
• 10g ground ginger

Method

1. Place the blackberries, lemon zest, caster sugar and apples in a pan
2. Cover with a lid and cook on a low-medium heat (stirring occasionally) until soft
3. Pre-heat oven to 180oc
4. Add all the crumble ingredients to a bowl and combine, until mixture resembles breadcrumbs

• Do not overmix
• Place crumble mix on baking tray and cook in the oven for (approx) 15 minutes

• Place fruit mixture into an oven-ware dish (approx 30cm x 20cm)
• Add crumble on top and bake for a further 20 minutes
• Serve with Ice cream, or our family favourite, extra thick double cream - yum!