Foraging for blackberries {Blackberry and apple crumble}

Last weekend we visited our local Farmers Market. On the way we spotted that the bushes were full of beautiful, ripe blackberries and we knew we would have to pick some. We picked up a spare bag whilst we were shopping to put our blackberries in. I’ve been meaning to get to a Pick Your Own farm all summer, finally this was our chance to let the children pick and make something with it.

We’ve never actually been foraging for blackberries with the children before. It’s something I remember doing with my parents and grandparents and I can still remember how happy my nan’s homemade blackberry and apple pie made me.

Look how happy my children were! I think my 7 year old ate as many as he picked.

We carried on until we had a big bag full, then took them home and washed them.

I’ve been following Slimming World for the last few months so really wanted to make a blackberry and apple crumble but keep the Syn value as low as possible.

I used:
400g cooking apples
150g blackberries
lemon juice
4 tbsp granulated artificial sweetener
110g self raising flour
50g low-fat spread
vanilla essence

I peeled, cored and chopped the cooking apples (from my father in laws garden) and placed them in a dish along with the blackberries. I added a little lemon juice and sprinkled half of the sweetener over it all.

I melted the low-fat spread, waited for it to cool, then added the vanilla essence. I placed this in a bowl with the flour and sweetener, using a fork to blend it all together until it resembled crumble. I sprinkled this over the apples and blackberries and cooked it at 190° for 30 minutes.

It turned out so well that I actually made it twice last week! I served it with low fat custard which made the perfect pudding for all the autumnal weather we’ve been experiencing. Without the custard it’s just 6.5 Syns per serving.