An abundance of berries

On
weekends Flash and I walk through Sheffield‘s General Cemetery with his best doggie pal
Stan, and his owner, Bea. We take them to the little river that runs down past
Frog Walk and they run around like crazy horses. It might sound a strange thing
to say about a cemetery, but it’s beautiful in there. It’s so overgrown and
wild and packed with history. Plus there is 
wonderful light.

In
the last few weeks the edges of the pathways through the cemetery have been
bursting with blackberries and Bea and I, much to the disappointment of the
marauding dogs, have been spending our time picking them. There have been
scratched legs and arms, a few nettle stings and lots of stained fingertips. I
know I shouldn’t be giving away my blackberrying hotspots, but I’ll be honest,
there are more than I could ever pick, eat or want. So it feels like I should
be sharing the wealth.

The first call was crumble. A simple, throw everything in the pan and go crumble. It probably doesn’t really need a recipe, but here goes;

• 100 grams
  blackberries.
• 2
  breaburn apples (I don’t like cooking apples that much)
• 90 grams butter
• 90 grams sugar 
• 120 grams plain flour. 

1. 1. Pre-heat the oven to 180
   degrees.
2. Wash the berries if you’ve
   picked them from the woods.
3. Cut the apples into small
   cubes.
4. Add 30grams butter to a pan
   and heat.
5. Mix 30grams demarara sugar in
   the butter until they have melted together.
6. Add the cut apples and cool
   for 5ish minutes until they are going soft.
7. Add the blackberries.
8. Add a splash of vanilla essence
   to the pan and let cook for another few minutes.
9. Whilst this is happening, add
   60grams of butter, 120grams of plain flour and 60grams sugar (I used caster,
   but I think a demarara would work too) to a bowl and scrunch together with your
   fingers until it’s all breadcrumby. One of my friends adds rolled oats to her
   crumble topping too.
10. Pour the berry apple mixture
    into a pan. Be careful, don’t let it splash your clothing. Trust me. It’s not
    easy to remove berrie juice. Sprinkle the crumble topping over the berries.
11. Cook in the oven for about
    20-25 minutes until the topping is going golden.