Fruity Crumble

Good morning again everyone!

So as promised earlier in the week, I am blogging about my crumble and later about this Novelty Cake I made for a customer. It's is only an added perk that I am getting this post written just before next week. You see I can't help myself, I love cooking, baking and blogging!

So, as you all will probably know, if you read my Facebook Page; 'CVL Bakes', I was away in Donegal for a few days there in the week and what a lovely few days away they were! Beautiful weather; warm and sunny everyday! And I don't know about you, but I was pretty surprised and frankly elated with this weather, as it is Ireland. We're not exactly blessed when it comes to the weather. Nobody lives in Ireland on the basis that we get beautiful weather all the time. At least that is my opinion. Why do you think we have such green surroundings?

Personally, I love the cold and rain. I know, weird. Because (I'm just remembering how my English teacher taught me never to start a sentence with 'Because'- I can't quite remember why, but ah well, this is my blog, so....) out of the rain we benefit from such vibrant, luscious and abundant greenery! It makes everything look so happy to me.  (: - See my smiley face symbol proves this emotion...

Anyway, I made the crumble as I wanted my mother to have something sweet to munch on when I was away. I'm the baker in the house which is ideal, as that is what I do for a living as well as cooking. So, whenever we want something sweet, I make it, it isn't bought. It works in two positive ways;

1) I get to bake!
2) The house is filled with the smell of baking... yum!

This crumble is fresh, fragrant and fruity! Like my Fricative Alliteration?

You'll be needing a baking dish, preferably ceramic or glass. But anything that is oven proof works. Butter this with some melted butter and set aside as that it all the prep done.

Then set the oven to 180 C in a Fan- Assisted Oven.

So the oven is heating , the dish is waiting, now we need the ingredients to fill both those purposes.

The ingredients that you will need are;

For the Filling:

- 4 Apples, I know most recipes say cooking apples, but I always use whatever we have, be them cooking or eating apples.

- 1 punnet of Blackberries, or if you have them growing in the garden as we do, even better. Although I forgot about this and had one very sad looking mother staring at these shop bought berries. Lol.

- 1 punnet of Blueberries.

- 10g Butter

- 20g Sugar, I used soft brown sugar, but will also use Caster, depending on what I have.

- 1 1/2 tsp Cinnamon

- 1 1/2 tsp Nutmeg

- 1 Lemon Zest grated


For the Topping:

- 120g Plain Flour
- 60g Butter
- 60g Caster Sugar


Method:

- The first thing you want to do is peel the apples. Do this and then chop the top and bottom off. Cut into four chunks and then those in half. Put these into a pot, the one you'll be cooking the fruit in. Once all the apples are in, grate the lemon zest over them with a little cold water. This will stop them from browning, maybe not entirely, but partially at least.

- Turn on the hob ring to about medium heat, I used number 4. Then whilst the pot is heating, pop in the butter and allow this to melt and bubble away. Add some more water if the apples start to caramelise and brown, instead of soften and infuse.

- Then once the apples are softened, they'll look slightly yellower and will have little bits falling off occasionally, add the sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg and stir. This will turn the apples a deep woody colour and will smell amazing. They'll turn from looking soft, to slightly caramelised and stickier.

- Let this bubble away until you have come to the consistency that you like and they are soft enough. You want most of that water you put in to have cooked away. Some people like the apples softer than others. So make it your own and be innovative with it!

- Now you want to add the Blackberries and Blueberries. They don't need a lot of cooking, if any at all, but I like to warm them through and give them a chance to take on the flavour. Toss them in and mix them around. They'll burst and ooze out their juices, turning the apples this deep purple colour. Yum!

- Pop this into the buttered baking dish and leave to cool slightly.

- To make the crumble topping, get your food processor and bung all the ingredients in together. Mix the flour and sugar slightly beforehand so the crumble won't go gritty slightly.

Blitz this until it resembles breadcrumbs and then sprinkle over the cooked fruit and bake.

However, if you do not have a food processor, get a cool bowl. Pop in the cubed and cool butter and rub this into the sugary flour with your finger tips or a fork. Whatever works for you. Do this until they look like breadcrumbs. Before you forget what they are and are about to go and add them to your meatball mix, stop, this will do bad things to your meat.

Oh yeah, I had a few raspberries around, so put them in too

Sprinkle over the fruit and bake.

- You want to bake this for around 40 minutes until the fruit bubbles up around the edges and that purple juice starts to ooze out the sides. Yum Yum Yum! You will also need to wait until the crumble topping has gone this golden-brown colour and is crusty to the touch. You don't want it to still feel squishy and soft, it won't be done if it is like that.

Serve this warm or cold with whatever you want.

I always feel vanilla ice cream or custard goes the very best with it. But then again, you might like fresh fruit or cream with yours? You could even have salad with it, whatever makes you happy.

I hope you liked this one as well and talk soon!


Thanks again!

Have a lovely day!