Recipes Using Seasonal Blackberries and Apples

A Hedgerow Harvest Worth Waiting For

There are few pleasures in the British countryside quite like a late-summer walk with a tub in hand and purple fingers an hour later. From late August through to early October, our hedgerows are heavy with brambles, and gardens and verges are littered with windfall apples that would otherwise go to waste. Put the two together and you have the backbone of some of the finest autumnal cooking this country has to offer — sharp, sweet, deep purple and wonderfully easy to get right.

The beauty of blackberries and apples is their balance. Blackberries alone can be seedy and a touch tart; apples alone can be bland or almost eye-wateringly sharp. Together they make something greater: rich crumbles, homely pies, slow-cooked sauces and chewy fruit leather that keeps for months. And if you gather more than you can eat, the freezer means you can pull out a taste of autumn in the depths of January.

Picking Well: Blackberries and Fallen Apples

Go out on a dry afternoon after a day or two without rain — wet berries are watery and mould quickly. Pick berries that come away with a gentle tug; those that resist need another few days. Choose fruit higher up the bush where you can, above knee height, and away from busy roadsides and sprayed field margins. Always leave a good share behind for the birds and small mammals who depend on them.

For apples, never take fruit off someone else's tree without asking, but windfalls in your own garden, an allotment, or a friendly neighbour's orchard are fair game. Eat the sound ones fresh and turn bruised or slightly damaged fruit into cooked dishes — just cut away any rot and brown flesh.

• Bramleys break down into a fluffy, tart purée: perfect for crumble and sauce.
• Eaters such as Cox or Egremont Russet hold their shape and add sweetness to pies and leather.
• A mix of both gives the best of everything — texture plus depth of flavour.

The Classic: Blackberry and Apple Crumble

This is the recipe most of us reach for first, and rightly so. Heat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan, gas mark 6). Peel, core and slice 450g of apples — Bramleys for softness — and put them in a pan with 2 tablespoons of water and 2 tablespoons of caster sugar. Cook gently for five minutes until just softening, then tip into a buttered ovenproof dish. Stir through 300g of blackberries and a little extra sugar to taste, bearing in mind the fruit will sharpen as it sits.

For the topping, rub 150g of plain flour into 75g of cold butter until it looks like coarse breadcrumbs. Stir in 75g of demerara sugar, 50g of porridge oats and a pinch of salt. Scatter over the fruit — don't press it down, or you will lose the crunch — and bake for 35 to 40 minutes until the top is golden and the juices bubble at the edges.

Serve warm with custard, clotted cream or vanilla ice cream. A handful of chopped hazelnuts in the topping is a fine addition if you have them.

A Proper Blackberry and Apple Pie

For a pie that holds its shape, aim for a roughly 50/50 mix of blackberries and apple slices. Toss 400g of prepared fruit with 100g of sugar, a tablespoon of cornflour and a good squeeze of lemon juice — the cornflour stops the filling turning to soup. Line a pie dish with shortcrust pastry, fill it, brush the rim with beaten egg and top with a lid, sealing and crimping the edges. Cut two or three slits in the top to let the steam escape.

Bake at 200°C (180°C fan, gas mark 6) for 25 minutes, then lower to 170°C (150°C fan, gas mark 3) for a further 25 to 30 minutes. If the pastry browns too quickly, cover loosely with foil. Let it stand for at least twenty minutes before cutting — difficult, but worth it.

Fruit Leather and Other Ways with a Glut

When the crumbles and pies are done and there are still punnets on the worktop, fruit leather is the answer. Simmer 500g of blackberries and 300g of peeled, chopped apple with 2 tablespoons of honey or sugar and a squeeze of lemon until soft. Push the lot through a sieve to remove the pips, then spread the purée about 3–4mm thick on a lined baking tray.

Dry it in an oven on its lowest setting — around 60–70°C with the door slightly ajar — for six to eight hours, or use a dehydrator if you have one. It is ready when it peels away cleanly from the paper without sticking. Roll it up in greaseproof paper and keep it in an airtight tin for up to a month; it makes excellent walking fuel.

Other easy uses include a spiced compote for porridge, a quick sauce for pork or game, and blackberry vinegar or gin if you fancy something stronger.

Freezing the Autumn Glut

Freezing is how you stretch a fortnight of foraging across a year. Spread clean, dry blackberries in a single layer on a tray and open-freeze them for a couple of hours before bagging — this keeps the berries separate rather than one solid lump. Bag them in 300g portions, which is roughly what most crumble recipes call for, and label with the date. They will keep for up to a year.

Apples freeze well as slices or as a cooked purée. For slices, toss them in a little lemon juice to stop them browning, then freeze in portions. For purée, stew and sieve, sweeten lightly if you like, and freeze in tubs. Come February, a crumble made from your own hedgerow haul tastes like sunshine remembered — and that, more than anything, is what seasonal country living is all about.