by Yotam Ottolenghi from Ottolenghi Comfort (Ebury Press)
Photography: Jonathan Lovekin
Baked in an ovenproof dish and served directly to the table while still warm, this is a gorgeously homely cake. It works in all seasons, as well, if you play around with the fruit. Peaches with raspberries in the summer, for example, apples with plums when it’s autumn.
Getting ahead/keeping notes: This is best eaten warm but is great, also, the next day at room temperature, cut into pieces. The amount of fruit – it’s a lot! – means that any longer than a day later and the cake will be a bit soggy. The crumble can be made up to 4 days ahead and kept, refrigerated, in an airtight container or frozen for up to a month.
It can also be used as a topping for muffins.
Serves 6–8
Ingredients
180g plain flour
1½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
4 small Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced (360g)
35g fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated
1 lemon: finely grate the zest to get 1 tsp, then juice to get 1½ tsp
180g unsalted butter, diced, at room temperature, plus about 10g extra for greasing
130g caster sugar
3 eggs and 1 egg white
1 tsp vanilla extract
300g blackberries
single cream (or custard), to serve
Crumble topping
90g plain flour
80g demerara sugar
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
60g flaked almonds
¼ tsp salt
75g unsalted butter, melted and then slightly cooled
Method
First make the crumble topping. Put the flour, sugar, ginger, cinnamon, almonds and salt into a medium bowl. Stir to combine, then add the butter and, using a fork, mix together until combined and clumps form. Set aside in the fridge.
Preheat the oven to 170°C fan. Grease a large, deep ovenproof dish – about 26cm wide – with butter and set aside. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a small bowl and set aside.
Combine the apples, ginger and lemon juice in a separate small bowl and leave to macerate while you make the batter.
Place the butter, sugar and lemon zest in the bowl of a stand mixer. Use the paddle attachment to beat on a medium-high speed for 3 minutes, until light and creamy. Whisk the eggs, egg white and vanilla extract in a small jug and, with the machine on, stream into the creamed butter mixture, in 4–5 additions, scraping down the sides of the bowl, until combined. The mixture will appear curdled but don’t worry: it will come together again. Reduce the speed to low, add the sifted dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Remove the bowl from the stand mixer. Reserving 100g each of the macerated apples and the blackberries, gently fold the rest into the cake batter.
Scrape the mixture into the greased dish and smooth over the top. Scatter the reserved apples and blackberries on top, followed by the crumble topping: break the crumble into uneven clumps for texture, and make sure some of the fruit is poking out in places.
Bake for 45–50 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. Set aside to cool for about 30 minutes before serving warm, with the cream.
Drinks tasted on air, alongside the dish.