Bilberry Crumble

With slightly sharp and juicy bilberries and crumbly crumble, this fabulously delicious bake contains all of the seasonal flavours and textures you might want in one bite.

Filling:
bilberries (250 g)
castor sugar (50 g)
ground almond (50 g)
2-3 Tbsp. apple purée/cooked apple or chopped apples
1-2 tsp. cornflour

Crumble Topping:
all-purpose flour, unbleached (100 g)
butter (50 g)
Demerara sugar (25 g)

Heat the oven to 400°F (200°C/180°C fan, Gas Mark 6).

Mix the sugar, ground almond and apple purée with the bilberries and add it to the buttered pie dish. You can use a round 7" pie bowl, I have used 2 smaller 5" baking dishes.

Mix in the cornflour with the bilberries.

Add the butter and flour into a bowl and work with your fingers until it is mixed well into a sand/crumbs-like mixture. Then add in the Demerara sugar. At this point, I tend to freeze this mixture for 10 minutes if the butter is soft.

Add a sprinkle of water into the crumble mix to bring it together then sprinkle the mix on top of the bilberries and bake in the oven for around 20 minutes until the top is golden and bubbly.

Serve with vanilla ice cream and/or homemade custard.

Makes 4 servings.

Cook’s Notes:  This is best made and eaten on the day as it is moist. If you want to make it in advance then mix the bilberries and keep this in the fridge, freeze the crumble topping and assemble it just before baking the next day. Feel free to also add a dash of Crème de cassis (liqueur) if you have it (into the bilberry mix).