Since moving into our home in 2020, we've been on a mission to fill the property with a wide variety fruit trees and bushes that will (hopefully! ideally! eventually!) allow us to continually harvest homegrown fruit every week of the growing season. We're located in Massachusetts, which means the typical growing season for blackberries is mid-July through mid-September. This overlaps nicely with early apple season, which begins in August and runs through November, with the peak time for picking occurring in September. So armed with fresh blackberries and local apples, what's a gal to do except make a scrumptious apple blackberry crumble to usher in fall coziness?
I believe that a crumble is one of the most beautifully simplistic treats to make — it kind of makes me feel like a prairie grandmother or a wee little hobbit. It's rustic in the truest sense of the word, and doesn't put on any fancy airs. Rather, it coasts by on taste alone, daring you to comment on its appearance when it tastes so stinkin' good. I rather think they should change the saying from "easy as pie" to "easy as crumble" considering that I've battled mightily with pie crusts at various points in my adult life. And one time, pie dough actually brought me to tears. A crumble would never!
"But hold up, lady. A crumble? I call something like this a crisp. Or a cobbler. Or a grunt!" Turns out, rustic fruit desserts like the one below masquerade under many different names depending on where you're from, or slight differences in the recipe. My bible, America's Test Kitchen, shines a light on some explanations here: Grunt, Slump, and Buckle: Decoding the Odd Names of Fruit Desserts. You'll walk away from that article well-versed in the minutiae of what constitutes a betty, buckle, cobbler, crisp, crumble, grunt, slump, sonker, or pandowdy.
Now, back to the task at hand: this apple blackberry crumble. In my house, we have a thumbs up system for rating new recipes, as devised by my two kids (5 and 3) — usually some combination ranging from thumbs up, thumbs sideways, and thumbs down. When I served this for dessert recently, my daughter exclaimed, "MOM THESE ARE 1,000 THUMBS UP!!!!" and if you have young kids, you know how discerning their palates can be. So this passes the vibe check with both kids and grownups, alike.
And if you've recently returned from an ambitious apple picking expedition, and find yourself laden with more apples than you can shake a stick at, I think you'd also love my sourdough apple fritters and these salted caramel apple pie bars.
Hint: If you're sometimes flummoxed as to what apples to use in which recipes — tart? sweet? crisp? firm? soft? I like to keep the following list handy: The Best Apples for Baking and Cooking from Farmer's Almanac. I also like to refer to this image I snapped from our favorite apple picking spot:
One of my main gripes with crumble recipes sometimes is that the ratio is all off — I like a lot of crumble, so when I've made recipes in the past I tend to double what the recommended crumble recipe is to ensure my dream ratio stays intact. With this apple blackberry crumble, I hope you'll find a perfect amount of crumble to fruit. The worst is when you're topping the fruit with the mixture, only to realize you've got a paper thin layer of crumble and then frantically try to mix up extra to fully cover the top. Not the case here!
Now, without further ado, the current crumble of my dreams.
Related
Looking for other recipes like this? Try these:
- Chickpea Blondies
- Ted Lasso Biscuits
- Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies with Butterscotch Chips & Toasted Pecans
- Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies
Pairing
These are my favorite dishes to serve with [this recipe]:
📖 Recipe
Apple Blackberry Crumble
Ingredients
For the fruit filling
- 3 ½ lbs apples — a nice variety of flavor and texture I used Granny Smith, Cosmic Crisp, and Ginger Gold, peeled, and cored, then cut into ½ inch cubes
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- ¼ cup packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1 lemon, juiced
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 2 cups fresh blackberries
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the crumble topping
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup rolled oats
- ¾ cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 8 tablespoons cold unsalted butter cut into cubes
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F, then lightly butter a 9x13-inch baking dish
Make the fruit filling
- In a large skillet or saucepan, melt 2 tablespoons of butter over medium heat, then stir in the prepared apples, lemon juice from 1 lemon, ¼ cup brown sugar, ½ teaspoon salt, and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Cook for 5–6 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the apples begin to soften but still hold their shape. Add the blackberries and 1 teaspoon vanilla, and cook for 2–3 minutes more. Remove from the heat. Transfer the mixture to the prepared baking dish.
Make the crumble topping
- In a medium bowl, whisk together 1 cup all-purpose flour, 1 cup rolled oats, ¾ cup brown sugar, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and ½ teaspoon salt. Add the cold butter cubes and cut them into the dry ingredients using a pastry cutter or your fingertips until the mixture forms coarse crumbs with some pea-sized pieces of butter remaining. Stir in the vanilla, mixing to incorporate.
Assemble and bake
- Sprinkle the crumble topping evenly over the fruit filling. Bake for 35 - 40 minutes, or until the topping is golden brown and crisp and the fruit is bubbling around the edges. I start checking around the 30 minute mark.
- When you remove the dish from the oven, cover it with aluminum foil to let the fruit juices set, and allow to cool for at least 15 minutes before serving. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.
Notes
- Best apples to use: Braeburn, Honeycrisp (or anything with "crisp" in the name, Gala, or Granny Smith all work well. You want a balance of sweet and tart — mixing varieties gives the best flavor.
- Can I use frozen blackberries? Yes. No need to thaw first, just add a couple extra minutes to the cooking time in the skillet.
- Make ahead: The crumble can be assembled up to 1 day in advance and baked just before serving. Or bake fully, cool, and reheat at 325°F until warmed through.
- Storing leftovers: Keep covered in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Reheat in the oven for best texture.
- Freezing: You can freeze the unbaked crumble (wrapped tightly) for up to 3 months. Bake from frozen, adding 10–15 minutes to the bake time.
- Gluten-free option: Substitute a good gluten-free all-purpose flour blend in the topping.
- Dairy-free option: Use plant-based butter for the topping and filling.
- Serving ideas: Vanilla ice cream is classic, but whipped cream or custard are delicious alternatives.
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