Two-Berry Crumble

Once every few months, or so, I get in the mood to cook. My most recent bout of "I must cook something I wouldn't normally cook or eat" was a berry crisp. I originally saw a recipe on Pinterest that looked delectable, but after finding that it was gluten free, I hunted around for something similar that contained all of the delicious gluten possible. I think I'm allergic to gluten-free... I settled on a recipe for a "Best Berry Crumble" linked below that seemed to fit all of my criteria for baking - simple ingredients, easy, less than one hour prep + cook time. This berry crumble turned out perfectly crumbly with a hearty topping but wasn't super sweet - the berries really held their taste and the lemon and ginger kept the sugar from turning this into a too-sweet dessert. Below are the hyphenated steps in photo form and then the recipe.

This really happened. Kitty got bored of waiting for the crumble to come out and went to take a nap. As soon as the buzzer went off he was up and stood at attention waiting for his slice. (Unfortunately, this berry crumble is not approved for cat consumption!)

(Based on this Best Berry Crumble recipe)

Two-Berry Crumble

2 cups blueberries (I used two little boxes)

1 cup of blackberries (I used almost one and half cups)

1/4 c. sugar

1 tablespoon lemon juice

2/3 c. flour 

1 tablespoon chopped crystallized ginger (optional)

6 tablespoons of butter, chilled and cut into small pieces

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 c. old fashioned oats

Vanilla ice cream

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees (and make sure you take out the old waffle that was in there from Sunday's brunch so that it doesn't smoke up the whole house... this step might just be for me). Your rack should be in the upper third of the oven.

Toss your washed blueberries and blackberries in a large mixing bowl with sugar, lemon juice, chopped crystallized ginger, and 2 tsp. flour (from the original 2/3 c.). Turn the berries into the 9" pie plate. P.S. They're should be looking berry delicious at this stage.

In a medium mixing bowl, mix the remaining flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and oats. Then cut in the butter (cut into small pieces) with a pasty cutter until crumbly. Sprinkle this topping over the berries. Depending on how much topping to berry ratio you like, you may want to reserve some of the topping as it makes quite a bit! Bake for 35 minutes until the top is brown and the berries are bubbling up and over your pan. Serve it warm with vanilla ice cream (I prefer Haagen Dazs).