Easy Blackberry Crumble Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to crunchy crumble? ›

However, we also love adding porridge oats for extra chewiness, as in these recipes for very-berry oat crumble and American-style apple crisp. Chopped and toasted nuts such as pecans, almonds or hazelnuts also make a lovely addition to a traditional crumble, for taste as well as an extra-crunchy texture.

Puree blackberries with fruit juices and/or other fruits and freeze to use in recipes, like popsicles. Yogurt can be added to the mixture before freezing for extra flavor and nutrition. Orange, lemon, cinnamon and nutmeg flavors blend well with blackberry flavors.

Butter, which encourages both browning and crispness, is the magic ingredient in getting your topping just right, so follow the recipe instructions. But if you feel your topping is still too dry and crumbly, (even for a crumble) add a bit more melted butter, a tablespoon at a time.

If you're using soft fruit like berries, peaches or plums, it's a good idea to cook it with some cornflour before it goes into the oven, to help thicken the juices.

The main reason your crumble topping isn't crunchy is probably because you haven't used Demerara sugar. Although, it could also be that you've got your topping ingredient quantities wrong: either too much or not enough flour and butter alongside the sugar.

Crumb topping can be as simple as flour and sugar thickened with butter, but two small upgrades make for a tastier crumble topping. First, adding a teaspoon of baking powder to the flour mixture makes the crumble topping more tender.

Macerating—soaking or steeping in liquid and/or sweetener—is one of the easiest and fastest ways to doctor up sub-par berries. Toss them in sugar, honey, or maple syrup, along with a little fresh juice or alcohol (an herbal liqueur, like elderflower spirit, would be great).

Blackberry: Pairs well with almond, apple, apricot, black pepper, blueberry, cinnamon, citrus, clove, ginger, hazelnut, lemon, mango, mint, peach, plum, orange, raspberry, strawberry, and vanilla. It mixes very well with berry liqueurs, brandy, Champagne, orange liqueurs, port wine, and red wines such as merlot.

But the truth is, berries carry mold spores that cause them to go deteriorate very quickly. And that mold can spread through a whole basket of berries in a flash. Good news: You can easily kill off mold and bacteria with a quick vinegar and water bath, then dry off the berries before they go in the fridge.

If you use more butter than the recipe calls for, the crumb topping will be melted and greasy. If you don't use enough butter it will be dry and floury.

Why does my crumble topping go hard after? ›

The most common cause of hard crumble is using the wrong amount of butter. So, be sure to measure carefully! If you don't use enough, your crumble will be too hard. However, to fix it, just add melted butter one spoonful at a time over the mixture until it is a little moister and crumbles with ease.

Then, make sure to bake the crumble long enough so that the fruit filling comes to a profuse simmer at the edges of the pan. This shows that the cornstarch has been activated enough to thicken the juices, turning them supple and silky.

Cover the pan with foil, and bake for 20 minutes, then remove the foil and bake for a further 25 to 30 minutes, until the crumble is golden brown and the filling is bubbling. Leave to stand for 5-10 minutes, then serve warm with custard or ice cream.

Often this happens if the crumb topping is over-mixed or if the butter was much too hot. Over-mixing will leave you with a pasty, batter-like mixture rather than the crumbly topping you are aiming for. Using very hot butter can cause the sugars to melt, leaving you with a greasy and not crumbly mixture.

Double-bake your fruit crumble topping

For the crunchiest crumble ever, pre-baking the topping is the key. Otherwise, once in the oven, the crumble topping will mop up the fruit's juices like a sponge. The undersides of the topping never even had a chance to achieve their golden glory days.

“I can't stand crumbles that have a layer of floury sugary dust on top. They're supposed to be chunky and craggy, with big pieces of crumble on top. By freezing your topping, it makes it harden just slightly and that means the texture will be nice and crispy when it's cooked.”

As my Epi colleague Anna Stockwell writes in her method for easy No-Recipe-Required Granola, egg whites have the power to help ingredients clump together. And since they're light, I knew they wouldn't weigh down that streusel. The result was a crisp topping that sliced beautifully and stayed intact.

Crisps are essentially crumbles with the addition of oats and optional nuts, which causes the topping to “crisp” in the oven. Due to the higher ratio of oats to flour, crisps are often enjoyed for breakfast and are just as tasty eaten cold from the fridge as they are warmed up in the oven.

How do you keep crumble topping crunchy? Use cold butter. This will help to create a crumbly texture that will not stick together when baking.