Apple and Blackberry Crumble Bars

These autumnal apple and blackberry crumble bars are the perfect way to use up a glut of seasonal fruits. It’s such a lovely way to ease the transition from lighter summer dishes, into richer autumnal flavours especially as this decadent dessert combines a buttery biscuit base, tangy jam filling and a crumbly nutty top. The bonus – they are super easy to prepare…

Ingredients

For the base and crumble top

This recipe makes extra so you can adjust the thickness of your base or amount of crumble topping to suit, please note that cooking times may vary according to your chosen thickness.

• 200g light brown sugar
• 300g salted butter, melted
• 500g plain flour
• 2 tsp of ground cinnamon
• 50g of roughly chopped hazelnuts

For the Filling

• 300g blackberries
• 2 apples, peeled, cored and diced
• 100g caster sugar
• 1 tbsp cornflour
• Zest of 1 lemon
• Juice of 1/2 a lemon

Method

1. Begin by preheating your oven to 180°C, Fan 160°C, Gas 4. Then grease a loose-based 25cm square baking tin.
2. Next, stir the sugar into the melted butter, add the cinnamon and then the flour. Do not mix in the hazelnuts, leave these aside for now. Stir the mixture until well combined into a soft, crumbly dough. Set aside at least a third of the mixture and place this into the fridge to chill.
3. Pour larger portion of dough into the pre-greased tin and press flat into a level base. Prick the dough with a fork every few centimetres, to ensure there is no rise. Bake this in the oven for approximately 12-16 minutes or until golden brown and just set. Put this to one side to cool whilst you prepare the filling.
4. Roughly chop the blackberries and add to a bowl with the diced apple (the chunks need to be quite small), caster sugar, cornflour, lemon zest and lemon juice. Stir well and spoon over the baked base.
5. Take the chilled dough out of the fridge, using a knife you can cut through the dough while in its bowl to loosen it back into a crumble form, or if your hands are cool, break apart and crumble. Scatter this along with the roughly chopped hazelnuts over the jam filling as thinly or as densely as you like. Return this to the oven for a further 40-45 minutes or until golden brown, checking after 35 minutes.
6. Allow to cool completely and then remove from the tin, cut into whichever shape you like and enjoy with a cup of tea and a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Images by Humphrey Munson

Crockery by John Julian

Linens by Rebecca Udall