Sounds delicious!!!!! Sometime the things you throw together - and can't be repeated - taste the best.

Kate, two people ate 3/4 of it and there were no complaints. :) I do think that elderberries would have been even better than blackberries to make it a really good 4-way combination!

PM, I was just going to ask you how it was, like there was really a question in there, LOL. It sounds good to me, I tend to like fruit based desserts better than most others, so I sure wouldn't turn it down,

Heck, that doesn't even need ice cream!

Annie

Blackberry and apple is an absolute classic autumn mix over here. I still have a couple of b and a crumbles in the freezer from last year. I do not think elderberries would be an improvement. In fact the strong funky taste of elder would spoil apple imo.

Ha, Annie, my BF froze in indecision when he realized he had both cheddar cheese and whipped cream to choose from. :0)

Floral, I also mix blackberries with apples as a regular combo, and I have always added apple to my elderberry pies — just like my grandmother and mother always did. The combination works great!

It sounds delicious! The oat, brown sugar, and butter topping is sure to make it even more delicious. *chef's kiss

Elderberries are not used whole in cooking here. They're made into jellies, wine and syrups. The only UK recipe I have found for using them in a pie requires them to be strained and made into a syrup first. How do you deal with the fact that they are 50% seeds? Do your strain them? Or perhaps your elderberries are different?

I'd like to say that I grow seedless elderberries... but I do not. lol! Elderberries have no more seeds than blackberries, and their seeds are usually soft. I think that adding sliced or chopped apples to elderberries improves the flavor, texture, and fruit to seed ratio. :)

I think your elderberries must be different from ours. We get them from wild bushes in the hedgerows. They definitely have much lower ratio of fruit to seed than our blackberries, which are also gathered wild. And the seeds are very hard. It's like eating gravel. But come July maybe I'll give them another try.

Mine are cultivated: Adams & John, and I think the berries are larger than what I would find growing wild.

That would explain it. Few people grow named varieties them here as they are so widely available in the wild and most people don’t have the space to grow large bushes.

We have wild elderberries here too, and have always eaten them just the same.

I'm trying another apple crisp combination... this time the base is thinly sliced apples, dotted with raisins, chopped walnuts, blobs of strawberry jam, and a generous layer of cinnamon-sugar. My grandmother would always put those things in her apple strudel, so I thought I'd try that combination, but made into a crisp. It's out of the oven and looks really good. :)

eta: and yes, these apples are from my own harvest! I found two bags of them in the refrigerator drawers that I had mistaken for my bags of seed stash. lol!

None of those combinations seem strange to me at all - I often mix fruits like that.

Latest combo we've been enjoying is blueberries or chopped strawberries added to my regular banana bread recipe, which I make as muffins, instead of a loaf.