How to use stale bread to make a classic British pudding – recipe | Waste not

We have a family tradition of making our daughter a fruit pie of some sort for her first day of school each September. Last year, it was a simple apple pie, but we intend to make our way through the myriad heritage desserts, from crumbles and crisps to cobblers, buckles, pandowdys, grunts, slumps and sonkers. This year, we made a brown betty, a wonderful, crumble-like dessert made with stale bread. We kept things seasonal with apples and blackberries from the garden, but any combination of fruit works really. I sweetened this one with maple syrup, but use your sweetener of choice: each adds its own unique flavour.

Apple, maple and blackberry brown bread betty

A brown betty is easier to make than crumble; it’s also arguably even tastier, and it saves waste, too. I used three brown bread crusts left over from my wholemeal bread taste test, which, when stale, make perfect and flavourful breadcrumbs. The topping should be good enough to eat even before cooking – totally delicious, salty sweet with maple syrup, and crunchy with seeds – so taste and adjust as you see fit with more salt, sweetener, nuts and seeds. The addition of sea salt is a gamechanger that really brings out the sweetness of the maple syrup.

Serves 4-6

4 apples
100g blackberries
70-80g maple syrup, or brown sugar or another sweetener
1 tsp vanilla essence
50ml water, or brandy
75g butter, 50g of it melted, or extra-virgin olive oil
3 slices wholemeal bread (about 85g), torn into pieces
50g mixed seeds, or roughly chopped nuts (optional)
½ tsp sea salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
Yoghurt, or cream, ice-cream or custard, to serve

Cut the cored apples into rough cubes (compost the cores, or turn them into pectin jelly) and toss with the blackberries, 40g of the maple syrup (or other sweetener), the vanilla essence and 50ml water (or brandy; the alcohol will cook off, and leave behind a lovely, complex flavour). Tip into a roughly 20cm-wide skillet or ovenproof dish, then dot with 25g of the butter (or extra-virgin olive oil).

Tear the bread into pieces, then pulse-blend into chunky breadcrumbs. Stir in the remaining 30-40g sweetener, the melted butter (or extra-virgin olive oil), the mixed seeds or nuts, if using, the sea salt and ground cinnamon. Scatter this mix over the top of the fruit, then bake in a 200C (180C)/390F/gas 6 oven for 40-45 minutes, until golden brown and bubbling.

Remove, leave to rest on the counter for 10 minutes, then serve with yoghurt, cream, ice-cream or custard.