Crumble fruit pie

Lundulph has been asking for an apple pie for ages and I was originally going to do Delia Smith's recipe, but I can't be bothered with making a pie crust, so I decided to do the crumble instead.

Today I made one with apple and blackberry and one with just apple. I have two square pyrex dishes where the amounts below fit perfectly

Ingredients

750 g apples
250 g blackberries
4 - 6 tbsp caster sugar
ground cinnamon

7 dl plain flour
2 dl porridge oats
1.5 dl caster sugar
300 g butter at room temperature
3 dl corn flakes

Method

1. Butter the dishes and distribute the apples, a bit less in the dish where the blackberries will be added.
   
2. Sprinkle 2 - 3 tbsp caster sugar over each dish. Then sprinkle cinnamon.
3. Spread the blackberries evenly in one of the dishes.
4. In a deep bowl, mix up flour, oats and sugar, then add the butter and rub it in until evenly mixed. It shouldn't be possible to form any dough, but it should remain in small crumbles.
5. Add the corn flakes and carefully blend in, so they don't get too crushed.
6. Cover the fruit in the dishes well and bake for 50 minutes at gas mark 7 (220 degrees C) in the lower middle of the oven. Time depends on how thick the crumble is, keep an eye on it and take it out when the crumbles are golden brown.
   
7. Serve hot with vanilla ice cream or custard.

The apples I used today are Bramleys from Lundulph's parents' tree. Lundulph had peeled, sliced and frozen them last autumn. I had done the same with some of the blackberries I picked. Because both apples and blackberries are fairly sour tasting, I've increased the amounts of sugar. Generally I'd use dessert apples for this crumble, like Golden Delicious and the amounts can be reduced a bit.

I think this pie would be good with pears or rhubarb too. Some raisins or other dried fruit could be added. Maybe chopped nuts too.

Due to the nature of these pies, serving them won't look very nice, unless they are done in individual ramekins.


I bought ready made custard, which I heated up before serving, but if I find a good recipe, I'll post it here too.