Deconstructed blackberry and apple crumble

I’m a huge fan of crumble, but have recently discovered a way of making it so quickly, and in small quantities, so I can have an instant crumble for one late at night when I fancy a sneaky sugar kick!  I’ve called it ‘deconstructed’ crumble, which makes it sound very chef-y and pretentious, but really it’s just some delicious oaty, almondy crumbs that can be sprinkled on any fruit you’ve got to hand, which is very quickly stewed (well, warmed through) while the crumble bakes.  Our garden is groaning with blackberries at the moment, so I’ve been eating this quite often with them, but you could use other berries, apples, pears, peaches or whatever combination you fancy.

Ingredients

For the fruit:

1 punnet of blackberries

2 eating apples, peeled, cored and roughly chopped

4 tbsp water

3 tbsp caster sugar

1 tsp lemon juice

For the crumble:

1 cup rolled oats

½ cup ground almonds

¼ cup light brown sugar

3 tbsp butter, melted

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. Place the blackberries and apple into a saucepan with the water and sugar, and simmer on medium heat for 10 minutes or until the berries are slightly broken down and the liquid is slightly reduced. Remove from heat and stir in the lemon juice.
3. To make the crumble, place the oats, almonds and sugar in a food processor and pulse until they resemble a coarse wheat flour. Pour the melted butter over the top and combine with a fork.  Sprinkle onto a baking sheet and bake for 8 minutes until golden brown.
4. To serve, place a helping of fruit in a bowl and sprinkle with the crumble topping. Serve with custard or icecream.

  

Adapted from A Dinner Party blog