This pudding is a favourite of my German god-daughter. She says she prefers it to rote Grütze because the oats make it less sweet.
If you want to make the crumble crunchier, you can try adding chopped, toasted hazelnuts; Ottolenghi suggests substituting some of the sugar for palm sugar which will result in a mix of gooey and crisp textures in the crumble. Ottolenghi also adds desiccated coconut, cacao nibs and coffee grounds!
You could always add in a little British cassis to the filling for good measure!
Did you know that you can also use Anzac biscuit mix as a crumble topping?
Recipe for blackberry caramel crumble
Serves 6
Ingredients
- 600g/1 lb 6 oz/ fresh or frozen blackberries
- 4 apples (eating, not cooking, Coxes would be good) peeled, cored and chopped
- 115g/⅔ cup soft brown sugar
- 125g/4 oz/½ a brick of butter
- 100g/4 oz/½ cup Demerara sugar
- 150g/5 oz/1½ cups porridge oats…or, on one occasion when I couldn’t find any oats I used an oat-heavy muesli and it was even better
- ½ tsp vanilla paste
- ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
- 170 ml/¾ cup double cream
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
- Heat the fruit and soft brown sugar together in a saucepan.
- Cover, heat gently for about ten minutes, stiring occasionally.
- Meanwhile melt the butter in a frying pan and add the Demerara sugar.
- After a couple of minutes add the vanilla paste and the cinnamon, stir.
- Add the oats, stir again.
- Empty the fruit into a casserole and leave to cool.
- Spoon the crumble evenly over the cooled fruit.
- Bake for about 35 minutes.
- Serve warm with the cream.
