Apple & Blackberry Crumble Recipe

I only ever seem to get the urge to bake around this time of year. When the days become shorter, darker and my body starts screaming at me to eat stodgy foods and hide under a blanket. Who am I to argue?
That said, I am no baker. TV chefs annoy the hell out of me. All of them insisting I use ingredients that add to my weekly food bill, will rarely get used again and then trying to palm off their recipes as easy and simple? Oh please. I miss Delia.

When I bake, and admittedly that isn't often, I use the most simple version of the recipe I can get away with. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but when it does it's a thing of beauty. Well actually that's a lie. No one could ever describe my cooking as a thing of beauty, but it does taste good and that's the important thing.

So without further ado, here is my easy peasy recipe for the autumnal staple, apple and blackberry crumble. Enjoy.

You will need:

Crumble
Plain flour 120g
Margarine 60g
Sugar 60g

Fruit filling
Apples 300g
Blackberries 115g
Margarine 30g
Sugar 30g

STEP 1: Make The Crumble

Put your plain flour, margarine and sugar in a mixing bowl and rub it altogether with your fingers. Then cook it in the oven for 10 minutes. You don't have to do this bit, but it stops the crumble from going all soggy later when you sprinkle it over the fruit filling.

STEP 2: Make The Fruit Filling

Peel and cut your apples in to chunks. Big ones, little ones, s'up to you. Heat the butter and sugar in a saucepan and add the apples. Cook until tender then mix in the blackberries and cook for another couple of minutes.

STEP 3: Cook The Crumble

Pour the fruit filling into an ovenproof dish, sprinkle the crumble on top and bake in the oven for 10 minutes.

See? Very basic. Very quick. Very do-able. And it's freezable too so you don't have to worry wasted leftovers. What's not to love?

Oh and as an aside, the blackberries in this recipe were picked with my darling daughter on one of the last hot summer days. I thought it would be a nice mummy/daughter bonding experience. She hated it. She cried. I was hot. She was hot. I got stung by nettles and the whole affair has probably taken five years off my life due to the stress involved. In short: it's ok to buy frozen blackberries.