When is a crumble not a crumble?

Last week was just horrendously busy here, so I went home at the weekend to recuperate, and to bake! Obviously. So i have returned to the world of work refreshed, and complete with around 30 Oat and Raisin cookies, and many dense dark chocolate-cherry brownies. But in true Blackberryhorse fashion, I'm not going to blog about them today (mostly because I didn't take any photos this time around, so will have to make them again over the summer, what a pity, but trust me, they taste good) so here is an awfully out of season recipe for you instead, combining my loves of Christmas and crumbles...

Mincemeat crumble slices

Marks and Spencer sold similar things to these at Christmas, and so it being a matter of some urgency I made these over the Easter holiday. Naturally. This is adapted from the ‘strawberry and chocolate slices’ from M&S’s ‘Blissful Brownies’ (spy a theme in inspiration here?) using long neglected leftover mincemeat instead of jam, and with added almonds, dark brown sugar and even more oats.

225g plain flour (or self raising and omit baking powder)

1 tsp baking powder

100g ground almonds

100g oz caster sugar

85g oz soft dark brown sugar

225g oz butter

150g rolled oats

About 400g jar of mincemeat? (unfortunately my poor memory and guesswork fails me on this one, you needed more mincemeat than the weight of jam the recipe had because the bits in it deceive the scales)

1 oz Flaked almonds

1 tsp mixed spice

Heat the oven to around 190 fan, and line a deep sided baking tray

Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl and add the sugars, then add butter and mix until it’s all breadcrumby before mixing in the oats.

Press about ¾ of the mixture into your baking tray firmly and bake for about 10 minutes (it’ll rise a fair bit but will sink once out of the oven don’t worry!)

Once a bit cool, spread the mincemeat over the base. Mix the ground almonds, almost flakes and mixed spice with the rest of the floury mixture and sprinkle over the top

Put the whole thing back in the oven for 20-25 mins

Somehow managed to get the layers rather even!