I needed to make some room in my freezer the other day as I was making bread and it doesn’t last as long as shop bought because it doesn’t have the additives. I tend to chop the loaves in half and freeze half to use the following week as we do not eat a lot of bread any more. I have 3 bags of frozen foraged brambles (blackberries) from last year left, and so decided to make these easy crumble bars now that the blackberries are starting to ripen in our favourite foraging spot..
RECIPE
Ingredients
Cake crumble
2 eggs
250g butter or margarine
Tsp baking powder
2 cups of plain flour
Pinch of salt
Zest of half a lemon (optional)
Filling
3 cups of blackberries (I sometimes use red and blackcurrants)
1 cup of sugar
Juice of half a lemon (or tbsp from a bottle).
1 tbsp cornflour
Method
1. In one bowl mix together the fruit, lemon juice, the sugar and the corn flour for the filling.
2. In a separate bowl put the dry ingredients for the crumble.
3. Rub in the butter or margarine into the dry ingredients, add the lemon zest, if used, and the egg. It should be like soft pastry but add a bit more flour if too wet.
4. Take half of the crumb mixture and press into a greased tin.
5.Pour over the berry mixture and spread.(it might have dry sugar in it that is OK)
6. Break the remaining mixture into small knobs (balls) and dot over the top.
7. Bake 35 to 40 mins until golden.
8. Cut into squares.
This can be eaten as a bar or as a pudding with custard. I have found that it keeps well in a tin for a couple of days but then goes soft and so I tend to freeze it in double portions.
Looks lovely, I’ll definitely try this with the blackberries from my garden.
Brilliant. Thanks for commenting
Lovely, I might have a go at this with oats instead of flour to make it gluten free
Good idea.
I’d also like to try this with blackberries from the freezer. Would you defrost first or are they too watery?
I did defrost first when I made them from frozen
I think we will have to try these as we still have some in the freezer from last year and now some from this year too. Thank you for posting this recipe.
No worries. Thanks for commenting
Thanks Toni
Ooh, yummy, I have quite a stash of blackberries in the freezer. Will be giving this a go. Can you freeze the bars and defrost or will it go soggy? X
I freeze them. They do go slightly soggy but not as much as if you just stored them in a tin. We often use frozen ones for a pudding with custard in winter. I freeze two squares together
Thank you so much for these ideas.
Really looking forward to making these.
No worries. Thanks for commenting
I shall give this a go. Thank you.
Brilliant. Thanks for commenting
I think I may have messed this up! Should I have a crumble like texture? I squidged all the butter into the flour 🤦I’m sure it will still taste scrummy
I hope that it worked out all right. It is more like a shortbread kind of recipe and you kind of put rolled up balls on top which spread
What does the cornflour do in this recipe? (Context: I have no cornflour and am wondering if there’s something I can substitute for it that I DO have.)
I am not sure if you can substitute flour or not but the cornflour thickens the blackberry mixture
Super idea will try this thanks x
Thanks
Just what I needed, a recipe for using blackberries that is a bit different. May I ask why do you use cornflower in with them ?
It thickens the berry mixture so that the base does not go soggy and it is not runny