It's been great seeing an abundance of apples at the Farmer's Markets in recent weeks. One thing that makes Autumn so Autumnal is the plethora of appley dishes one makes to keep warm.

A few weeks ago a friend asked me to make a dessert for a dinner she was having, but it had to be high cholesterol friendly and low in sugar.  While I don't tend to use a lot of sugar in my desserts, I am known for using lashings of cream, custard and pudding! What to do? A classic crumble of course! If your apples are ripe enough you don't even need to use sugar in this recipe..I used very little in the final product!

<p style="text-align:center;"><img class="aligncenter" style="border:0 none;" src="http://www.remain-silent.com/cm/myplate/recipes/appleblackberrycrumble.JPG" alt="my apple blackberry crumble" width="450/"></p>

<strong>Ingredients</strong>
<em>Makes enough for a 9x13 pan for 8 people</em>

For the Fruit

* 3lbs of Macintosh Apples
* 4 oz of Blackberries (fresh or frozen)
* 1/3 cup of sugar if apples are not sweet
* 1 tsp of butter
* 1 tsp of ground allspice
* 1 tsp of ground nutmeg
* 1 tsp of ground cinnamon
*  salt

For the topping

* 1 Cup Oats
* ¾ cup of Multigrain Cereal (Rye, Barley, Oats and Wheat)
* ¾ Cup Whole Wheat Flour
* ½ Cup Chopped Pecans
* ½  Cup Raw Sugar
* 2 tbsp Butter softened
* 1 tsp. Sea Salt
* 3 tsp. Cinnamon
* 1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
* 1 Egg White

<strong>Directions</strong>

Peel and cut the apples into eighths
Melt the tbsp of butter in a pan.
Add the apples, salt, cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg and cook for about 15 minutes. If the apples are not sweet, add 1/3 of a cup of natural brown sugar.

Stir, cook until some apples have completely softened but most are firm.

In a bowl combine all the dry ingredients for the topping.
Add the softened butter and egg white and combine into the dry ingredients until crumbly. If not, add more butter until the topping is  crumble like.

Place the cooked fruit into a 9 x 13 pan (alternately you can put them into individual ramekins).  Top the apples with the washed blackberries (or any other seasonal berry).
Top the fruit with the dry mix and place in an oven heated to 375F.
Bake for 20 minutes until the top is golden. The fruit will be nice and firm, if you like them super soft, give it another 5-10 mins.

Serve warm with Honeyed Greek  yogurt, Ice Cream or warm custard!

<p style="text-align:right;"><font size="1"><i>image by cravenmaven using <a href="http://shakeitphoto.com">shakeitphoto</a></i></font></p>