Bramley Berry Slump

When I first moved over here to the UK, Blueberries were a very rare commodity, especially up in the North where we were living then.

I never, and I mean never, saw them in the shops, not ever.

Oh, how I longed for them. Something that I had come to quite take for granted, having been surrounded, and abundantly, by wild ones for most of my life.



In fact, as a child, I had come to despise them a bit . . . not the flavour, but the idea of them.

Every summer in late August, my parents always put us into slave labour to work in the fields surrounding our home and in the local area picking the little gems for what seemed like hours and hours, and was hours and hours. I hated it and so I hated blueberries, my childhood mind somehow surmising, and quite intelligently that supply had something to do with demand, so if we suddenly stopped demanding them, the enforced labout would end . . .



It didn't. We still spent hours and hours of back breaking labour in the hot summer sun, filling up gallon sized ice cream buckets for my mother to put into the freezer for the winter ahead.

Finally, I just gave up and caved into my love of them, and it's been a passion that's been going ever since.

Oh how I missed them over here, that is, until we moved South, and I discovered shops full of them. They are cultivated, of course, and not quite as lovely as the little wild ones from back home, but they'll do quite nicely.



One thing I have learned by being over here, and having been cut off from certain things, is that you never know what you'll crave when you can't get it any more . . .

Like Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, Captain Crunch Cereal, Cheese Whiz, All Beef Hot Dogs, Candy Cane Crackle Ice Cream, Bologna Sandwiches, and . . .

Wild Blueberries.



*Bramley Berry Slump*
Serves 6 to 8
Printable Recipe

This is so lovely with the sweet blueberries and the tart apples. The hidden surprise of creamy mascarpone cheese really makes it special, as does the crunchy biscuit topping!

2 large Bramley apples, peeled and thinly sliced (about 3 cups sliced apple)
1 knob of butter
2 small punnets of blueberries (about 2 cups)
3 ounces sugar
8 ounces of mascarpone cheese
For the topping:
3 ounces cold butter, cut into bits
8 ounces self raising flour
2 ounces sugar
the zest of one lemon
150ml of whole milk
To finish:
2 TBS Demerara sugar



Pre-heat the oven to 200*C/400*F. Butter a 1 1/2 litre baking dish. Set aside.

Melt the knob of butter in a nonstick skillet. Add the apples and cook, stirring, until they begin to soften. Add the sugar to the apples along with the blueberries. Mix well, and then tip the whole mixture into the prepared baking dish. Dot with the mascarpone cheese.

Rub the butter into the flour until it is quite crumbly. Rub the sugar and lemon zest together until quite fragrant. Stir into the crumb mixture. Add the milk all at once and stir to combine. Drop on top of the fruit and mascarpone in big blogs, making it look a bit craggy. Sprinkle the demerara sugar evenly over all. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 25 to 30- minutes, until crusty and golden brown and the fruit is bubbling. Allow to cool for 10 to 15 minutes before spooning into dessert dishes. Serve warm with custard* or vanilla ice cream* if desired.

*Really you won't need it with the mascarpone cheese, that is unless you are feeling totally hedonistic!

Applesauce Spice Cake . . .

As I may have mentioned before, or maybe not, we live in a little cottage in the rural English countryside, surrounded on three sides by beautiful English Orchards.

In the springtime, the area is a beautiful sea of pink and white blossom, in the summer a sea of green, filled with tiny miniature apples and pears and about this time of year the air rings with the sound of fruit pickers and is filled with the smell of ripening fruit.



Every intake of air fills the mind and heart with remembrances of the home of my childhood, the beautiful Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia, Canada . . . and dreams of apple pies, puddings and cakes . . .



One of the nice things about it all, is that we are free to help ourselves to the windfalls, and every few days one often finds a big pot of applesauce or apple butter simmering away on the top of my country kitchen stove . . .



In late August and early September my house permanently smells like cinnamon, and nutmeg, and cloves . . .



and apples . . . drying and hanging on strings, all strung across the back of the Aga . . . baking up all sweet and spicy into buttery apple pies . . . or into a cake stogged full of the lovely flavours of sweet sultanas, crunchy toasted walnuts, and moist with applesauce and spice . . .



*Applesauce Spice Cake*
Serves 10 to 12
Printable Recipe

This is a lovely cake that the whole family will enjoy. Deliciously moist and full of the wonderful flavour of spice, studded with soft raisins and crunchy walnuts, this truly is a joy to bake and to eat. The smell of this when it is baking is truly heavenly!


2 ½ cups plain flour
1 cups caster sugar
2 cups unsweetened applesauce
½ cup vegetable shortening such as Trex, White Flora or Crisco
½ cup water
2 large eggs, beaten
1 ½ tsp baking soda
1 ½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground allspice
½ tsp ground cloves
½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 cup chopped toasted walnuts
1 cup sultantas
FOR THE ICING:
¾ cup of softened butter
5 cups icing sugar, sifted
¼ cup milk
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp lemon essence



Pre-heat the oven to 180*C/350*F. Lightly grease and flour a 9 by 15 inch baking pan and set aside.

Sift together the flour, soda, baking powder, salt, spices and sugar into a large bowl. Drop in the shortening, applesauce, water and eggs. Beat it all together with an electric mixer until it is all smooth, beating well. Fold in the sultanas and walnuts. Spread evenly in the prepared pan.
Bake for approximately 34 to 40 minutes or until lightly browned and the top springs back when lightly touched. Alternately you may use a toothpick to see if it is done, which when inserted will come out clean.

Remove from the oven and place in the pan on a wire rack to cool completely.
Once completely cool make the frosting. Beat the butter until light and fluffy and then beat in the remaining ingredients, beating until smooth and fluffy. Spread evenly across the top of the cake. (leave the cake in the pan and serve from there) If you want you can sprinkle more toasted walnuts over the top of the finished cake. Delicious!

*Note - You can also bake this lovely cake in two 9 inch rounds, giving you one delicious one to frost and eat right away and another tasty one to wrap up and store in the freezer for a delicious treat a few months down the road. ☺