Crumbly and Sweet makes for the most delicious treat! That is why this Blackberry Crumble dessert is perfect because it is one layer of crumble and one layer of sweet. Just the other day, I was fortunate to be able to get my hands on a package of extremely sweet blackberries. Since it is winter and the blackberry season is in the summer months, I was pleasantly surprised. For me to have gotten a bunch this sweet was quite the treat. I just knew I had to make something with them before they went bad and I had been craving a berry filled dessert for a few weeks prior to this moment. These blackberries were already juicy, plump, and luscious so all they needed were a few extra ingredients to make them into a proper dessert.
Why Use Graham Crackers?
Ever since I was a child, Graham Crackers have always been one of my favorite sweet snacks. That is why when I got the vision to develop this recipe, I wanted to find a way to incorporate them. Since I usually make a lot of recipes with pastry dough or pie crust, I opted to use a graham cracker crumble for this dessert. It is less time consuming and gives the dessert a more homemade and rustic look. I chose to grind graham crackers up into crumbs and place them overtop of the blackberries for a top layer. This gives the dessert a nice texture that is slightly crunchy, but more so soft with each bite that you take. Putting the graham crackers on top as a crumble as opposed to on the bottom as a crust, helps the graham crackers to keep their texture instead of getting soggy from the juices of the blackberry drippings.
Assembly
After making the blackberry mixture, try it to make sure it is as sweet as you like it and then allow it some time to rest before pouring it in the baking dish. Now, you can get started on the easy crumb topping. Combine the crushed graham crackers with the melted butter and the topping is finished. There is no need to butter your baking dish since the blackberry juices and buttery topping will coat the bottom as it heats and bakes. Bake this in a 400° F (204 °C) oven for 35 minutes. So that everything can get a nice, even bake, resist the urge to open the oven door to check on how things are going. I know, it can be hard!
Serving
After 35 minutes, remove it from the oven and allow it to rest for 15 minutes before digging in and serving yourself some. Plate with a dollop of whipped cream, vanilla ice cream and even some additional lemon zest if you love lemon flavor as much as I do. I hope you find this dessert to be easy to make. You might like it so much that you will experiment with other kinds of berries the next time! However you choose to serve it, I hope you find it… BERRY good!
Happy Baking!
-Madison