Last updated 20:21, Thursday, 28 August 2008

IT IS with regret that we write this column feeling decidedly autumnal.

Surely this cannot be the end of the summer. That is if it came at all.

If we do get an Indian summer, then we’ll roll out all the hopeful summer column ideas that we’ve got squirreled away.

For now though, as the hedgerows bear their fruits, we take advantage of the humble blackite (that’s blackberry for all of you that herald from Ricky’s neck of the woods).

As we all know, this summer has not been too dry so our local hedgerows should be brimming with ripe jewel-like fruit. Make a day of it and pick your own if you can. Be sure to wash the fruit thoroughly though to get rid of any nasties that may be lurking in there.

If you don’t want to go for hand picked, you can use bought-in fresh or frozen blackberries.

Serves 6

For the crumble base:

4 large cooking apples, peeled, cored and cut into large chunks

1 tbsp water

3 tbsp sugar (approx. to taste)

225g blackberries

Put the apples, water and sugar into a saucepan and stew down over a medium heat for about five to 10 minutes. The outside edges of the apple chunks should be slightly broken down and mushy. Turn the heat off and stir the blackberries through the apples. Taste to check the sweetness – cooking apples tend to vary so much so it is hard to recommend an exact amount of sugar to use. Adjust to your taste if necessary.

For the crumble topping:

170g plain flour

75g chilled butter

75g demerara sugar

We usually cube the butter, but have recently seen it being grated into the flour which makes for easier rubbing in; you decide which method you’d prefer.

In a large bowl, rub the butter into the flour until it resembles the appearance of breadcrumbs. Disperse the sugar through the flour mix. You could add a pinch of spice such as cinnamon or nutmeg to this topping if you wish at this point.

Put the fruit mix into the base of an oven-proof dish and sprinkle over the topping. Cook for around 45 minutes at 180 degrees.

For the custard:

Once you try the delight that is homemade custard, you’ll never go back to bought in. Don’t be put off by words such as curdle. As long as you take your time it is actually very simple to make. Trust Ricky – he does wear a white coat after all.

100ml milk

200ml double cream

1 vanilla pod, split in half lengthways

3 egg yolks

55g caster sugar

In a heavy-based saucepan heat together the milk, double cream and vanilla pod until just under boiling point.

Meanwhile, whisk together the egg yolks and caster sugar until well-blended.

Pour half of the hot milk mixture into the egg mixture, whisking all the time as you do so.

Pour the egg mixture into the saucepan and mix with the remaining hot milk.

Cook the sauce mixture over a very low heat until you reach a suitable custard consistency. Stir continuously to avoid curdling (this is when the egg in the mixture cooks in the heat to form semi-solid lumps like scrambled egg).

Your custard should be flecked with tiny black seeds from the vanilla pod.

You can maximise this if you wish by fishing the pod out of the sauce and scraping out the remaining seeds. Stir these seeds through your custard.

The empty pod can be reused to make vanilla-flavoured sugar for other recipes. You can basically substitute vanilla sugar in any sweet dish if you like the flavour. Simply rinse the pod then pat dry with kitchen paper. Add it to a container of sugar and it will impart its heady flavour into the sugar. Yum!