Apple and blackberry crumble

This recipe adds marzipan to the crumble. Sacrilege? Maybe, but don’t knock it until you’ve tried it. (however, beware it contains nuts)

Serves
Filling –
• Sharp apples 900g
• Butter 20g
• Caster sugar 2 tbsp
• Unfiltered apple juice 100ml
• Ground cinnamon a pinch
• Blackberries 200g

Crumble –
• Butter 90g
• Plain flour 150g
• Ground almonds 5 tbsp
• Marzipan 100g
• Flaked almonds a small handful

Method
Peel, quarter and core the apples, then cut each quarter into about four segments. Melt the butter in a shallow pan over a low to moderate heat, add the apples and sugar and let them cook for 10 minutes or so, turning occasionally, until they have turned pale gold and are approaching tenderness.

Stir in the apple juice, sprinkle over the pinch of cinnamon, tip in the blackberries and set aside. Set the oven at 180C/gas mark 4.

Make the crumble: rub the butter into the flour, either using your fingertips or a food processor, until you have fine crumbs, then fold in the ground almonds. Tear the marzipan into small cubes, about 2cm in size, and stir into the crumble.

Transfer the apples and blackberries to a deep baking dish approximately 22cm x 24cm.

Loosely scatter the crumble over the fruit, then the flaked almonds.

Bake for about an hour until the crumble is golden and a little of the fruit has bled into the crust here and there. Leave the crumble to calm down for 10 minutes or so before serving,

Serve with a generous dollop of double cream!

Recipe by Nigel Slater
Image credit: Alex Bayev