Blackberry and Apple Tray Bake
From Gail's Artisan Bakery Cookbook, this blackberry and apple tray bake is perfect for guests. Serve warm with extra thick cream or indulgent vanilla custard.
Introduction
This is a dead easy tray-bake. Served warm, it makes for the perfect autumn dessert, accompanied by cream, custard or thick yoghurt, plus extra fresh berries or compote. Keep the fruit seasonal and mix it up to suit your tastes – summer berries, peach and blueberry, rhubarb and strawberry, pear and stem ginger. If you find the fruit you choose has a tendency to sink to the bottom as the cake cooks, next time, toss it very lightly in flour and shake off any excess in a sieve or colander before stirring into the batter.
Ingredients
| 175g | butter, plus extra for greasing |
| 300g | plain flour, plus extra for dusting |
| 1 | small Bramley apple, cored, peeled, quartered and thinly sliced |
| 2 | small red apples, cored and thinly sliced |
| 2 tbsp | lemon juice |
| 300ml | double cream |
| 3 | eggs |
| 220g | caster sugar |
| 1 tsp | vanilla extract |
| 300g | fresh blackberries |
Essential kit
You will need: a deep pudding dish about 20cm x 30cm.
Method
Preheat the oven to 170°C/gas mark 3. Butter and flour a deep pudding dish about 20cm x 30cm. Toss the slices of apples in the lemon juice to prevent them from browning.
Pour the cream into a saucepan, add the butter, and place over a medium heat. Allow the butter to melt, stirring, but don’t let it come to the boil. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly.
Beat the eggs with the sugar in a bowl until well combined, then pour on the warm cream mixture, stirring all the time. Fold in the flour with a large metal spoon, then stir through the berries and slices of apple. Pour everything into the baking dish. Bake for about 40 minutes, by which point it should be puffed up, lightly golden and very slightly crisp at the edges. A skewer pushed into the centre should come out clean – take care not to over-bake this or it will lose its lightness.
