Blackberry and Apple Mania!

If you love blackberries (or apples...) but can’t get any near you then look away because this post holds 5 yummy blackberry or apple (or both) baked puddings! After last Fridays successful blackberry gathering down by the Thames, we took our supply up to Suffolk where we picked more! We also gathered the glut of apples on our huge apple tree in the garden and then made these.....

First – blackberry and apple compote. Peel, core and chop your apples, add loads of blackberries, put on the heat and wait. You end up with delicious deep purple compote which I like best with Greek yogurt and a little bit of brown sugar for breakfast.



Next – Blackberry and apple crumble! Crumble is the first recipe I ever learnt to make and it is very simple. I often make it on holiday because all you really need is a bowl, caster sugar, butter and flour. I love rubbing it all together and thinking “this is never going to come together” and then in just a few minutes ending up with fine breadcrumbs. I like using slightly soft butter because it is easier and quicker to rub, but if I am making it at home I do it in the Magimix.

Sometimes I use tinned peaches or apricots for the filling, and once tinned pineapple, but my all time favourite is strawberry and rhubarb crumble! In Spain we used plums and sometimes we add oats or ground almonds to the crumble mix but mainly just leave it simple. This one was very good!

Thirdly – heaped blackberry and apple pie. One day we went to Ipswich and the Lakeland store there (I’m a bit sad - I loved it there and was choosing things to buy when I grow up!) . When we were there we bought (among other things!) a pie dish. As soon as I got home I put it to use making this delicious yummy pie. I liked the pie dish because it had a smaller dish with holes in that fitted snugly inside and was for baking things “blind” instead of using baking beans etc. I pressed down the pastry, put the small hole dish on top, baked for 10 minutes and it came out great! Then I piled in the apples and blackberries and covered with the remaining pastry. My sister carved in some stars and leaves on the pastry, we cooked it for about 20 minutes and it came out delicious! I was very proud because it was my first time making pastry and my first pie :)

Before...

And after!

Fourthly, (?) the simplest pudding – baked apples! Whilst at Lakeland we also bought these nifty baked apple cookers.

They came with a corer and we just cored the apples, secured them in the cooker, topped with mixed fruit, butter and sugar, covered with the lid and microwaved for a few minutes!

Fifth and finally, blackberry muffins. I will post more about these tomorrow but they are VERY good (I have made three batches in a week and there are only three members of my family eating them!). I really liked the recipe (from BBC Good Food Magazine) and know I shall make these again in the future. Now, however, I am all blackberried out and have some savoury recipes in the pipeline! Savoury - eek!!!