Martin Hollis, executive chef at the Old Course Hotel in St Andrews, serves up a slice of seasonal goodness.
This cake is beautiful eaten while still warm, with a dollop of creme fraiche, yoghurt or custard – but is equally nice the next day with a cup of coffee. It’s what autumn days were made for.
The berries in this recipe make the crumble traybake vibrant and colourful whilst also delivering all the wonderful health benefits that they contain.
Berries are packed with antioxidants that help with healthy skin and hair and help to prevent illness. They also contain a lot of fibre, folate and anthocyanins which are believed to have preventative and therapeutic properties.
So not only does this dessert taste great – the berries also pack a punch of health benefits just as the temperature starts to drop and winter starts to poke its head round the corner!
Berry crumble traybake
Serves 8 for a snack or 4 for dessert
Ingredients
For the berry filling:
- 200g berries (raspberries, blackberries, cherries, blueberries, blackcurrants all work well, or a mix)
- 50g caster sugar
- 2 tbsp corn flour
For the crumble topping:
- 110g plain flour
- 70g cold unsalted butter, cut into smallish cubes
- 30g caster sugar
For the cake:
- 220g plain flour
- ¾ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- 50g ground almonds
- 200g caster sugar
- 80g butter, melted
- 2 free-range eggs
- 40g yoghurt thinned with 2 tbsp milk
Method
- Preheat the oven to 160C Fan/180C/350F/Gas Mark 4. Grease and line a rectangular baking tin (approximately 26cm x 20cm/10½in x 8in).
- In a saucepan combine the fruit with 50ml/2fl oz water. Bring the fruit just to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for two to three minutes.
In a mixing bowl combine the caster sugar with the corn flour. - Stir into the fruit and continue to cook for two to three minutes, stirring frequently, until the mixture is thick and jammy. Set aside to cool.
- For the crumble topping: Add the flour to a mixing bowl and rub in the butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs and no large lumps of butter are left. Stir in the sugar and set aside.
- For the cake: In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and cinnamon. Stir in the ground almonds until thoroughly combined.
- In another bowl beat together the sugar with the melted butter, eggs, yoghurt and milk mixture until thoroughly mixed. Stir into the flour mixture just to combine. Don’t overmix it but watch out for big lumps of unmixed flour.
- Spoon two-thirds of the mixture into the lined tin, gently spreading out evenly to the corners. Spoon the cooled fruit mixture evenly over the top.
- Using a teaspoon, dot the remaining cake batter evenly on top of the fruit.
- This will not cover the entire cake but make little hillocks with gaps in between.
Sprinkle the crumble mixture over the top, filling in all the gaps to cover the fruit. - Bake in the oven for 45-50 minutes, until the crumble topping is golden-brown.
Allow to cool for 10 minutes in the tin, then transfer the cake in its paper to a cooling rack.