Blackberries are plentiful around the parish at the moment and this year they are very sweet.
Here’s a low fat healthy recipe using soft fruit.
Hot Fruit Slump
1kg mixed soft fruit such as blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries
1 tablespoon caster sugar (use 1 teaspoon of artificial sweetener if preferred)
For the dumplings:
250g white self-raising flour
A pinch of salt
1 tablespoon caster sugar
25g butter, diced
1 egg lightly beaten
75ml skimmed milk
To serve: low fat natural yoghurt, low fat custard or low-fat iced desert.
Method
1. Pick over the fruit and rinse it and place it while still damp in a large saucepan or wide deep frying pan, then add the sugar and stir. Cover the pan with a lid and simmer the fruit over a low heat for 15 minutes, shaking the pan or stirring frequently to prevent the fruit sticking. As the fruit slowly simmers it should ‘slump’ or soften, into a textured sauce.
2. Meanwhile, to make the dumplings, place the flour in a mixing bowl and stir in the salt and sugar. Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs, then quickly stir in the egg and milk to make a dough. Divide the dough in half and shape each half into 8 small dumplings to make a total of 16.
3. When the fruit has simmered into a sauce, drop the dumplings into it, spacing them as far apart as possible. Cover with the lid and continue simmering for 8 minutes then turn the dumplings over, cover again and simmer for a further 8 minutes.
4. Serve 4 dumplings per person with a little sauce, accompanied with yogurt, custard or ice cream.
