Blackberrying

Walking to work along the river, I noticed a growing glut of plump blackberries slowly ripening next to the reservoir - so the other day I went and picked as many as I could find, returning home laden with 1.1kg of fresh local blackberries!

When I got home with my haul, I decided to use half the blackberries to make a crumble, and the rest to try out making some bramble jelly.

Very Blackberry and Apple Crumble

Blackberry and Apple Crumble is one of my favourite puddings, and is extremely easy to make. Best of all, it also happens to be Vegan - as long you use non-dairy margerine for the 'crumble'.

For this crumble, I only had one and a half apples, but because I was using 500g blackberries the overall fruit content was fine. The altered ratio of berries to apple did give the crumble more of a 'cherry-pie' feel though, especially as I decided to stew some of the berries with the apple slices beforehand. Mmm gooey...

Ingredients

For the crumble:

• 175g Plain Flour
• 25g Rolled Oats
• 30g Dairy Free Margerine
• 30g Demerera Sugar
• 1 tsp Cinnamon
• 1 tsp Ginger
• 1 tsp Nutmeg
• Pinch of salt

For the filling:

• 500g Blackberries
• 150g Apples 
• 2 tablespoons Water
• 1 tsp Cinnamon

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C /350F/ Gas Mark 4.
2. Rinse blackberries in a collander and leave to soak in a bowl of water for 5-10 mins
3. Core the apples and cut into slices.
4. Drain the blackberries and put half in a large pan together with the apple slices, 2 tablespoons of water and 1 teaspoon of Cinnamon.
5. Heat on a low heat until the apples have softened, but take off the heat before the blackberries start to lose their shape.
6. Stir together the flour, oats, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and a pinch of salt in a large mixing bowl.
7. Add the margerine and rub lightly into the dry ingredients with your fingers (or use the 'two-fork' method) until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Do not over-blend - it doesn't matter if there are some floury areas left in the crumble topping, and a briefly tossed, rubbed-together mixture will give you a lovely light crust.
8. Pour the stewed apple/blackberry mixture into the bottom of a large baking dish, distributing the rest of the blackberries over the top.
9. Cover with the crumble mixture and bake for 30-40 minutes or until browned and crispy on top and bubbling underneath.

Delicious served hot with a couple of spoonfuls of cold Vanilla Soy Yoghurt, although thick English custard is the most traditional accompaniment. 

Non-Vegans can have it with ice-cream, drizzled with single or double cream, or with a dollop of whipped cream, creme fraiche or greek yoghurt on the side - and of course Vegans can substitute these with their favoured non-dairy alternatives.

Thick Bramble Jelly

Ingredients

• 500g Blackberries
• 200g Sugar (I used finely ground raw cane sugar)
• 50 ml Water

Method

1. Put the blackberries in a pan with the water. 
2. Stew berries with the lid on, stirring occasionally, until they are softened and the pulp has started to seperate from the seeds.
3. Take another pan and pour the stewed berries into it through a sieve, mashing and pushing the pulp through with a wooden spoon to leave the seeds behind. You can store the left-behind pulp in a bowl or container to use later as fruit compote (nice with soy yoghurt or ice-cream).
4. Bring to the boil, stiring continuously to avoid sticking.
5. Once it starts to thicken, add the sugar and continue stiring until completely dissolved.
6. Pour into a sterilized jam jar and leave to cool.