Bramley and blackberry traybake

I am lucky enough to live right next to a very beautiful part of the Lee Valley park so when I had a hankering to go blackberry picking this weekend I didn’t have to go very far. In terms of food miles, the blackberries used in this recipe did less than one!

I should point out that I wasn’t alone in this venture and was more than ably assisted by the CCBF (Caked Crusader’s Boyfriend). All the outdoors photos used in this post were taken by him (when he should’ve been picking fruit – anything to get out of hard labour!!! But I’ll let him off as he peeled and sliced all the apples used in the cake....I’ll turn him into my commis chef yet!)

The bushes directly in the sun were abundant with big, juicy blackberries and we far exceeded the amount we needed to make two of these cakes. It was apparent that no one had been there before us – I remember when you had to time it right to ensure that the bushes had anything left to pick; now it seems like no one can be bothered, which is a shame.

Our haul of luscious berries:

Here are the two cakes ready for the oven:

For reasons I can’t quite explain, this cake tasted French to me. It’s not a spongy cake and it’s not as batter-y as, say, a Clafoutis but somewhere between the two. One thing I can say with clarity – it’s utterly delicious! There’s actually more fruit than cake and each bite is packed with flavour and texture. Very simple to make and extremely lovely to eat.

The colours of the blackberries and the apples start to merge giving a very pretty hue:

Grab a Tupperware, put on some thick trousers (those prickles snag) and get picking – with very little effort you could be enjoying this:

Ingredients:

175g unsalted butter, at room temperature
284ml whipping cream
225g golden caster sugar, plus 2 tablespoons for sprinkling on top
3 eggs
300g plain flour
4 bramley apples, peeled, cored and cut into chunky slices
300g blackberries

To serve: ice cream or thick cream

How to make:

- Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan oven 180°C/400°F/Gas mark 6.

- Grease a 30cm x 20cm deep roasting tin with butter.

- Tip the butter and cream into a saucepan and bring slowly up to the boil. Remove from the heat and set to one side.

- Whisk the sugar and eggs together until thick and fluffy. This takes a good few minutes and you’ll know when you’re there as the colour will turn pale.

- Whisk the cooled cream and butter into the egg mix.

- Sieve in the flour and fold until combined.

- Peel, core and cut the apples into wedges. Cut each quarter into three chunky slices.

- Pour the batter into the prepared tin and scatter over ¾ of the blackberries.

- Arrange the apple slices – you’ll need to place them compactly to get them all in.

- Scatter the remaining blackberries over the top.

- Sprinkle over two tablespoons of golden caster sugar.

- Bake for 50 minutes – 1 hour until the batter is starting to pull away from the sides of the tin.

- Leave to cool then serve with either ice cream or cream.

- Bask in glory at the wonderful thing you have made.

- Eat.

Far Breton aux pruneaux

The weather has truly snapped over to “cold” now and coupled with the dark mornings I need my comfort food more than ever (of course, in the summer it’s the warm weather and daylight that results in me needing comfort food). What could be more comforting than a dish comprising of a baked custard batter and rum?

Here it is fresh from the oven:


I’ll admit that there were several points during making this recipe when I had doubts. It seemed so runny and compared to other Far Breton recipes it had a much higher milk content. Then the instructions said to “push the prunes down into the batter” – mine didn’t need any help! The recipe also said to brush the egg yolk on the top before putting the Far in the oven – how can you brush on top of liquid? All I’m trying to get across is that I’ve changed the instructions slightly to reflect my experience of making this dish. As you can see, the results are yummy.

Each slice is unique due to the prune placement. The prunes go squishy and soft:



A Far Breton is a traditional cake from the Brittany region of France. “Far” is a sweet batter similar to clafoutis but more eggy. Intriguingly, the dish is served for breakfast as well as dessert; I like the idea of that!

The Far can be served either hot or cold. Both the CCM (Caked Crusader’s Ma) and CCD (Caked Crusader’s Da) preferred it hot whereas I preferred it at room temperature. Heating it makes the texture softer and brings out a more eggy custard flavour. Here are the slices ready for reheating:


Ingredients:
150g plain flour
125g caster sugar
4 eggs, beaten
500ml whole milk
Dash of rum
200g pitted prunes

For the glaze: 1 egg yolk

How to make:

- Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan oven 160°C/350°F/Gas mark 4.
- Grease a 20cm gratin dish or alternatively line a 20cm round springform tin with baking/greaseproof paper.
- Mix the flour and sugar together then make a well in the centre.
- Add the eggs and whisk until the batter is thick and smooth.
- Keep the whisk running and slowly pour in the milk and rum.
- Pour the batter (it will be very liquid) into the tin/gratin dish and place the prunes evenly into the batter. They will sink as the batter is so thin.
- Place in the oven and bake for at least 35 minutes before attempting to brush on the egg yolk glaze. Mine was not firm enough to do that before.
- Bake further until the top is nice and golden and there’s not too much wobble when you gently shake the tin. Mine took an additional 35 minutes but I’d advise keeping an eye on it as the original recipe said it would only need 30 minutes in total! Either my oven is insane or the recipe understated it!
- The Far will sink slightly on cooling – that’s to be expected.
- Serve slightly warm with my preference, whipped cream, or if you wish to make me cry, crème fraiche.
- Bask in glory at the wonderful thing you have made.
- Eat.