A Simple Blackberry and Apple Charlotte

 

This delicious pudding is proof that you can create something totally indulgent and irresistible with just a few simple ingredients.




 

All you need is fruit, day old bread, softened butter, and some sugar.
Simple ingredients that everyone has in their home.  Put together in a simple way.  Anyone can make it, no real skill is involved.

 

So simple and easy to do that even a child could do it with supervision.  If you can butter bread . . . you can make this.



Softened and sweetened fruit, layered between buttered slices of bread . . . dusted with demerara sugar for extra crunch and sweetness . . .

 

Then baked until the bread is golden brown and crisply moreish . . .

 

Serve warm with lashings of cream or custard.

 

This is not a keeper, unless you are a fan of soggy bread, but that is so not a problem as you will have no leftovers.  Trust me on this.



 *Blackberry & Apple Charlotte*
Serves 4
Printable Recipe

The best blackberries for pudding and desserts are the ones you pick early in the season.  This is when they are the juiciest.  Older berries have a lot of seeds.  I always pick mine early and then freeze them so that I can make delicious pudding such as this simple one all the way through the winter!  Other berries such as black currants are nice done this way as well.

2 large cooking apples (Bramley)
caster sugar to taste
340g of blackberries (fresh or frozen, about 3/4 pound)
150g of softened butter (2/3 cup)
6 to 8 medium thick slices of day old bread, crusts removed
demerara sugar to sprinkle

 

Peel, core and roughly chop the apples.  Put them into a large saucepan along with 1 TBS of water.  Place over low heat.  Cook gently for about 10 minutes, until the apples are softened, but not collapsed into applesauce.   Add sugar to taste, then gently fold in the blackberries.  Remove from the heat and set aside.

Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. 

Butter the slices of bread well on one side.  Using 2/3 of the bread, line a 2 pint pie dish, placing them butter side down and cutting them to fit.  Spread the apple and blackberry mix over this.  Cut the remaining bread into rectangles and place on top of the fruit, buttered side up, covering it completely.  Sprinkle with demerara sugar.

Bake in the heated oven for 45 minutes, or until the bread topping is golden brown and crisp.  Serve immediately with "lashings" of cream or warm custard!

Simple desserts like this make the Toddster a very happy man.  That makes me a very happy woman.  Win/Win!