Apple and bramble crumble

Nothing can beat this seasonal favorite for being a budget dessert which is a hearty finish for a budget eating day! If you forage for the apples and blackberries, and already have flour, sugar and a few spices on hand, it could be next to nothing or perhaps 20p for the whole dish! The icecream some people serve with it is definitely the most expensive part of the dish but worth it if you can afford it!

Ingredients:
A few apples, peeled, cored and chopped - just enough to cover the bottom of whatever dish you're baking this in
a handful of blackberries or so
A bit of flour if above blackberries seem too juicy
3/4 cup of flour
1/2 cup of brown or white sugar
a teaspoon of cinnamon
a dash of nutmeg, ginger, whatever you fancy
1/2 cup of butter, melted
almonds/pecans/hazelnuts/porridge oats/seeds (optional)

Arrange apples and blackberries in pan or crumble dish - you can often find a 6 inch crumble dish in a charity shop for under five pounds.
Stir the dry ingredients, then add the butter. Stir till crumbly then sprinkle over apples and blackberries. Add nuts. Bake till golden brown and fragrant - 15 to 30 min depending on oven and size of dish, etc.
Serve with vanilla icecream or Greek yogurt!

Rosehip cordial

This is a very British drink - and full of vitamins. It is aromatic and soothing to the throat. It's a great thing to make that doesn't involve a lot of chopping for those with tendinitis tendencies!

Soak wild, freshly picked rosehips for an hour. Drain. At this point you can freeze and do the other steps another day or just plunge ahead.

To avoid chopping - I pour boiling water over the rosehips and let sit for half an hour.

Then I strain off the juice - and reserve for later! - and whizz the softened rosehips in the food processor.

Pour whizzed fruit into pan with more water and the strained juices and bring to a boil. Turn off and allow to infuse.

Pour this mix through four layers of muslin arranged in a colander over another pan or bowl.

The goal is to strain out all the irritating hairs, as well as seeds, etc.

Let drip overnight. Squeeze muslin to collect excess moisture - but maybe over a different bowl or you might do like me and dump all the irritating hairs back into the pure cordial!

Put in a pan and cook till the desired concentrate. Some people make rosehip syrup, some cordial.

For cordial, the recommended amount of sugar is usually
1 kilo rosehips - 350 g of sugar
or
1 pound rosehips - 1 cup sugar

I find I can put in a bit less sugar and it's fine.

Drink and enjoy! We usually drink ours within 3 days. It also freezes into ice lollies or ice cubes pretty well - these are fun to flavor smoothies with later!

If you want to try to keep it longer, add a campden tablet and put in a glass container with a non-metal lid.

Blackberry Ice Lollies

We love making popsicles /ice lollies. The kids get involved and it's a great way to get certain fruits into them that they might otherwise not try.

For a truly budget popsicle, try using the juice left over from tinned fruit. Or incorporating that in the mix! But if you are a good foragers, there's no reason to stop there. We get tons of brambles in the autumn and often have a few old bananas lying around that want using up!

Ingredients:

200g blackberries
banana
1 freshly pealed and chopped apple (or an orange, melon, whatever you have)

Method:

Place the food processor or a blender with a metal blade.

 Whizz.

Pour into molds and freeze overnight.

Layered Ice Lollies

We sometimes do it in 2 steps to get a layered effect!

Hot pink layer - was cranberry juice whizzed with raspberries and gooseberries
White layer - double cream beaten with mascarpone cheese and 100g icing sugar. Clearly not a budget choice but we had leftovers from Burns Night cranachan which needed using up! Any ice cream could be substituted.
Purple layer - see the above recipe with brambles

Three layers' origins