Tom Hunt's apple, maple and blackberry brown betty is a classic British pudding that transforms stale bread into a delicious, crumble-like dessert. This autumn treat is easy to make and helps reduce food waste, using simple ingredients like apples, blackberries and maple syrup.
A Family Tradition of Heritage Desserts
Each September, the family makes a fruit pie for their daughter's first day of school. Last year, it was a simple apple pie, but the plan is to work through a range of heritage desserts, including crumbles, crisps, cobblers, buckles, pandowdys, grunts, slumps and sonkers. This year, they made a brown betty, a wonderful dessert made with stale bread.
The recipe keeps things seasonal with apples and blackberries from the garden, but any combination of fruit works. The dessert is sweetened with maple syrup, though the choice of sweetener can vary, with each adding its own unique flavour.
Why Brown Betty Is a Thrifty Choice
A brown betty is easier to make than a crumble and arguably even tastier, while also saving waste. The recipe uses three brown bread crusts left over from a wholemeal bread taste test, which, when stale, make perfect and flavourful breadcrumbs. The topping should be good to eat even before cooking, being salty sweet with maple syrup and crunchy with seeds, so it can be adjusted with more salt, sweetener, nuts or seeds as desired. The addition of sea salt is a gamechanger that really brings out the sweetness of the maple syrup.
Ingredients and Method
For 4-6 servings, the ingredients are: 4 apples, 100g blackberries, 70-80g maple syrup (or brown sugar or another sweetener), 1 tsp vanilla essence, 50ml water (or brandy), 75g butter (50g of it melted, or extra-virgin olive oil), 3 slices wholemeal bread (about 85g), 50g mixed seeds or roughly chopped nuts (optional), ½ tsp sea salt, 1 tsp ground cinnamon, and yoghurt, cream, ice-cream or custard to serve.
Cut the cored apples into rough cubes and toss with the blackberries, 40g of the maple syrup, the vanilla essence and 50ml water (or brandy, which cooks off leaving a complex flavour). Tip into a roughly 20cm-wide skillet or ovenproof dish, then dot with 25g of the butter (or extra-virgin olive oil).
Baking and Serving
Tear the bread into pieces and pulse-blend into chunky breadcrumbs. Stir in the remaining 30-40g sweetener, the melted butter (or extra-virgin olive oil), the mixed seeds or nuts (if using), sea salt and ground cinnamon. Scatter this mix over the fruit, then bake in a 200C (180C fan)/390F/gas 6 oven for 40-45 minutes, until golden brown and bubbling.
Remove from the oven, leave to rest on the counter for 10 minutes, then serve with yoghurt, cream, ice-cream or custard. This dessert is a perfect way to use up stale bread and enjoy a classic British pudding.
