Apple & Blackberry Crumble with Oat Topping

Ingredients — Fruit Filling

• 900g Bramley apples (about 3 large), peeled, cored and cut into 2cm chunks
• 250g blackberries, fresh or frozen
• 75g caster sugar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
• Finely grated zest of ½ lemon
• 1 tbsp cornflour

Ingredients — Oat Crumble Topping

• 150g plain flour
• 100g porridge oats (not instant)
• 120g cold unsalted butter, cut into 1cm cubes
• 80g light brown soft sugar
• 30g demerara sugar (for sprinkling on top)
• ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
• Pinch of salt

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C / 170°C fan. Butter a deep baking dish of about 2-litre capacity (roughly 28 x 20cm or a similar oval dish).
2. Make the filling. Toss the apple chunks with the caster sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon zest and cornflour until evenly coated. Spread in an even layer in the baking dish. Scatter the blackberries over the top — no need to stir them in, they’ll sink and meld as the crumble bakes.
3. Make the topping. Fit the Magimix with the metal blade. Add the flour, cinnamon and salt and pulse briefly to combine. Add the cold butter cubes and pulse in short bursts — about 6–8 pulses of 1–2 seconds each — until the mixture resembles rough breadcrumbs with some pea-sized pieces remaining. Do not over-process. Tip into a bowl and stir in the light brown sugar and oats by hand — adding the oats after processing keeps them whole and gives the topping its crunch.
4. Spoon the crumble topping evenly over the fruit. Don’t press it down — a loose layer crisps up better. Scatter the demerara sugar over the surface for extra crunch.
5. Bake for 35–40 minutes until the topping is deep golden brown and the fruit is bubbling up around the edges. If the topping colours too quickly, loosely cover with foil for the final 10 minutes.
6. Leave to rest for 5–10 minutes before serving — the filling will be extremely hot straight from the oven.

Tips

Bramley apples break down beautifully and give the right level of sharpness to balance the sweet topping — eating apples can be used but the filling will be sweeter and hold its shape more. If using frozen blackberries, add them straight from frozen; the cornflour will help thicken the extra juice. The crumble topping can be made in advance and kept in the fridge for up to 3 days, or frozen for a month. Serve with custard, vanilla ice cream or clotted cream.