This recipe is inspired by a bake I made as a child from Nigella Lawsons second book, How to eat, one of the first cookbooks I remember baking from. I’ve changed the recipe slightly to include seasonal bilberries although you could use blueberries or blackberries instead. There are plenty of tasks in this recipe perfect for little ones to help out with. Older children can do the weighing out of the ingredients and chopping of the apple, while smaller childen will enjoy making the dough and sprinkling over the crumble and fruit topping.
For the Bread:
- approx. 400 grams strong white bread flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 50 grams caster sugar
- ½ tsp fast action yeast
- 2 large eggs
- Splash of vanilla extract
- grated zest of ½ organic lemon
- pinch ground cinnamon
- 125 millilitres lukewarm milk
- 50 grams butter
For the top:
- 1 large egg
- 1 tablespoon cream
- 1 pinch of ground cinnamon
- 1 small apple
- 375 grams bilberries or blueberries
- zest of ½ lemon
- 50 grams self-raising flour
- 25 grams ground hazelnuts
- 50 grams cold unsalted butter (diced)
- 4 tablespoons demerara sugar
- 25 grams flaked almonds
- Put 350g of the flour, the sugar, salt, and yeast in a bowl. In a seperate bowl, beat the eggs and milk with the vanilla extract, zest and spice. Combine the dry and wet ingredients together to create a dough. With your hands mix in the soft butter and knead the dough until it feels plump and elastic.
- Cover the dough with a damp tea towel let the dough expand over the next hour or so. Once its risen punch the dough down and release the excess air. Now press the dough down into a baking tin. Let it sit for another quarter of hour then glaze the dough with a mixture of the egg and cream.
- preheat the oven to 180°C Fan/gas mark 6. Make the topping by combining the ground nuts, flour and a pinch of cinnamon along with the butter with your fingertips, as if your making a crumble then add in the sugar and flaked almonds. Chop up the apple into 1cm pieces and combine with the lemon zest and bilberries.
- Pour the fruit mix over the dough in the tin and then shake the crumble mix over the top. Bake for quarter of an hour then reduce the heat to 160C for and extra 20 minutes of baking and the dough looks golden
- Remove from the oven and let cool enough to eat.
