September is one of my favourite months of the year. It brings the transition between lazy summer nights and cozy winter evenings. I love the bright days sandwiched between chilly mornings and evenings and watching the leaves fall.

Most of all I love that September is the month where my apple tree is ready to harvest at the same time as the local blackberry bushes. Perfect for gathering the fruits I need to make one of my all time favourite desserts: Apple and Blackberry Crumble.

I love the combination of the warm juicy blackberries mixed with the sharper cooking apples and all topped with a thick crunchy crumble.

It’s such a great sweet treat to cosy up with as the days get cooler and watch the seasons change!

INGREDIENTS

Topping

120g Oats

220g Plain Flour

180 Butter

90g Soft Brown

90g Caster Sugar

Filling

4 Cooking Apples

1 Punnet of Blackberries

60g Brown Sugar

METHOD

Preheat your oven to 180°C.

In a large mixing bowl add your ingredients for the crumble topping.

Rub the ingredients together with your hands until they form a breadcrumb like texture.

Pour the topping onto a large baking tray and place in the oven for approximately 10 minutes.

Toss the mixture then put back in for approximately another 10 minutes (it should be a golden brown colour).

While the crumble topping is baking peel and roughly dice the apples into 1 cm chunks.

Add the apple to a large pan with the sugar.

If you haven’t got access to fresh blackberries, frozen ones work great but it’s best to add them to the pan at this stage rather than later (as shown in the image below).

Place the pan over a low heat and stir the apples for approximately 5 minutes.

Add the blackberries to the apple pan, mix together and leave simmer for another 5 minutrs.

The apples and blackberries should soften and the sugar mix with the juices to form a bubbling liquid.

Pour the contents of the apple pan into your baking dish. If you would prefer to make individual portions pour the fruit mixture to half fill ramekins.

Cover with the topping mixture and place into the oven for approximately 15 minutes so the juices from the apple bubble up around the edges.

Serve warm and enjoy!