Other fruits will also work well in this recipe, especially raspberries but I’ve used blackberries for several good reasons: they taste good, they were readily available for free on local hedges and they begin with a “B”. (I do like a bit of alliteration. That’s why I called them “bites”. “Big bites” might have been more accurate, but that seemed rather OTT, even for me.)

Need: A 20 x 30cm baking tray or roasting tin, with reasonably deep sides

Makes: A trayful – cut them however you want, depending how generous or hungry you feel. 18 (cut 6 x 3) worked well for me.

Time: About an hour in all

Level: Easy

Ingredients

250g/9oz self-raising flour
75g/2½oz ground almonds
250g/9oz golden caster sugar
½ tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
250g/9oz softened butter, plus extra for greasing
4 eggs
150ml/5½oz Greek yogurt or double cream (for extra richness) or half of each
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
100g/3½oz blackberries (I like using frozen, but fresh should be OK too)
75g/2½oz flaked almonds (50g/1¾oz for the mixture, 25g/1oz to go on top)
A mixture of about 50g/1¾oz Demerara sugar & 30g/1oz ground almonds, but more if you want it thicker.

Method

1. Heat oven to 180°C / 160°C fan / 350°F / Gas 4. Butter the tin and line with baking parchment.

2. In a medium bowl mix together the dry ingredients: flour, ground almonds, sugar, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

3. In a large bowl mix then beat the wet ingredients: softened butter, eggs, yogurt/cream and the extracts. (If it looks likely to split, spoon in some of the dry mixture.)

4. Add in the dry ingredients and stir or beat lightly until there are no pockets of dry flour. Stir in the blackberries and flaked almonds. (If the mixture is really thick, add a little more yogurt or cream or milk)

N.B. When using frozen raspberries, I crumble them into the mixture, but frozen blackberries may be a bit more solid and will need to be put into a small plastic food bag and bashed with a rolling pin.

5. Spoon into the tin and top with the reserved flaked almonds then sprinkle over the Demerara sugar/ground almond mixture. (Or mixture first, topped with the almonds)

6. Bake for 25 – 30 minutes. (Check at 20 in case it needs covering with foil) Cool in the tin then cut and remove.

I hope you make and enjoy this nice easy bake. Click this link for more tasty traybake recipes. In the meantime here are some of my personal favourites that I think you’ll love too:

Coffee and Cream Brownies