Gooseberry, apple and lavender crumble

It's gooseberry season, one of my favourite fruits which only seem to appear in grocers for but a few weeks a year. As soon as I laid eyes on some, I couldn't resist filling a bag full of them and bringing them home to make into a lovely stewed crumble filling. Usually I would add a splash of elderflower cordial to this, but I don't have any in the house today so instead decided to add a little lavender to the crumble topping, to give it a different flavour but still one reminiscent of flowering hedgerows on warm sunny walks in the countryside.

Ingredients

For the crumble topping

5 oz plain flour

4 oz butter, cubed and at room temperature

4 oz ground almonds

4 oz caster sugar

1 tsp culinary lavender

For the filling

3 small cooking apples, peeled, cored and chopped

8 oz gooseberries

3 oz caster sugar

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C.
2. Place the flour in a large mixing bowl, add the butter and rub with your finger tips until it looks crumbly and evenly dispersed.
3. Add the ground almonds, sugar and lavender and combine.
4. Top and tail the gooseberries and mix them with the chopped apples and sugar, stirrng until well coated with sugar.
5. Place the fruit in a large pie dish and sprinkle with the crumble mixture, pressing it down evenly with a fork.
6. Bake in the oven for 30-40 mins until the top is golden brown.