Nigella Lawson's Apple and Blackberry Kuchen

Ingredients

For the base

• 400 g white bread flour (or 350g)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 50 g sugar
• 3 g fast rise yeast (about 1 teaspoon)
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 lemon, zest of, grated
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 125 ml lukewarm milk
• 50 g butter, softened

To brush the base with

• 1 egg, beaten with
• 1 tablespoon cream, and
• 1 pinch ground cinnamon

For the crumble

• 1 small firm tart apple (or 1/2 medium, about 175g in weight)
• 375 g blackberries
• 1/2 lemon, zest of
• 50 g self-rising flour
• 2 tablespoons ground almonds
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 50 g cold unsalted butter, diced
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons demerara sugar or granulated brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons sliced almonds

Directions

1. 1

   For the cake: Pour 350g of the flour in a bowl with the salt, sugar and yeast. In another bowl, beat the eggs and add them, with the vanilla extract, lemon zest and cinnamon, to the lukewarm milk. Stir the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients to make a medium-soft dough, being prepared to add more flour as necessary. I generally use about 400g in all, but advise you to start off with the smaller amount: just add more as needed. Work in the soft butter and knead by hand for about 10 minutes or half that time by machine. When the dough is ready it will appear smooth and springy: it suddenly seems to plump up into glossy life.

2. 2

   Cover with a kitchen towel and leave until doubled in size (1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes). Or leave to rise slowly in a cold place overnight. Then punch down and press to line a jellyroll pan measuring 25x35 cm. You may think it's never going to stretch to fit, but it will, although you may need to let it rest for 10 minutes or so mid-stretch, especially if the dough has had a cold rise. When it's pressed out on the pan, leave it to rest for 15 to 20 minutes and then brush with the egg, cinnamon and cream mixture.

3. 3

   Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

4. 4

   Peel and chop the apple and toss it in a bowl with the blackberries and the zest from the other half lemon. Set the bowl aside for the few minutes it takes to make the crumble topping. Put the flour, ground almonds and cinnamon in a medium-sized bowl, stir to combine, then add the cold, diced butter. Using the tips of your fingers - index and middle stroking the fleshly pads of your clumpy (this is very buttery mixture) oatmeal. Fork in the sugars and sliced almonds.

5. 5

   Tumble the fruit over the egg-washed dough and then sprinkle the crumble on top of that. Put in the oven for 15 minutes, then turn down to 180 degrees C and cook for a further 20 minutes or so, until the dough is swelling and golden at its billowing edges and the crumble is set; don't expect it to be crunchy.

6. 6

   Remove from the oven and, if you can, wait 5 minutes or so before cutting it into greed-satisfying slabs.