Luxury Apple & Blackberry Crumble
About the bake
This luxuriously indulgent crumble is an interesting twist on the traditional apple and blackberry pudding and looks beautiful when served with a dusting of icing sugar. This recipe featured in series 2 of Baking Mad with Eric Lanlard on Channel 4.
Method
Step 1
Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan, gas mark 4).
Step 2
Roll out the pastry between two sheets of cling film and cut out disks with a metal ring. Place onto a greased baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden.
Step 3
For the crumble, mix together in a bowl the two flours, dark muscovado sugar, mixed spice, rolled oats and make a well. Add the softened butter and rub into the dry ingredients with your finger tips. Place this mixture onto a baking tray and bake 10-12 minutes until golden.
Step 4
For the filling, add the apples and blackberries, light muscovado sugar, cinnamon and the seeds of the vanilla pods to a frying pan and fry until the fruit has softened. Add a splash of calvados and flambe. Drain the fruits and keep the fruit juice syrups.
Step 5
On a plate, place a metal ring in the centre and lift a pasrty disk into the ring. Next, spoon in some fruit mix and then top with the crumble.
Step 6
For the custard, heat the cream and vanilla paste in a saucepan. In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks, sugar and cornflour until well combined. Slowly add in the hot cream and keep whisking. Return the mixture back into the saucepan and keep stirring until the mixture thickens. Add a dash of calvados and serve hot over the crumble.
Step 7
As a final touch garnish with a toffee apple. Heat the sugar until it turns into a caramel. Dip the mini apples into the hot caramel and place onto a lined baking tray to cool. Once cool place on top of the crumble.
Ingredients
For the crumble topping
- 100gAllinson's Plain White Flour
- 100gPlain wholemeal flour
- 100gPorridge oats (rolled)
- 200gBillington's Unrefined Dark Muscovado Sugar
- 200gButter (unsalted)
- 2 tspMixed spice
- 350gShortcrust pastry (sweet, homemade or bought)
For the filling
- 400gApple(s) (cox's, peeled and cut into chunks)
- 100gBlackberries (fresh or frozen)
- 100gBillington's Unrefined Light Muscovado Sugar
- 2 tspCinnamon (ground)
- 2Vanilla pods
- Calvados (splash of, optional)
For the custard
- 1 tspNielsen-Massey Vanilla Bean Paste
- 300mlDouble cream
- 4Egg yolk(s) (free range)
- 1 tspCornflour
- 30gBillington's Unrefined Golden Caster Sugar
- 1 tbspCalvados (optional)
For the toffe apple decoration
- 200gSilver Spoon Caster Sugar
- 6Apple(s) (mini)