Here’s a light and easy tray bake packed with a great mix of flavours. It makes a lovely tea time treat or anytime snack.

Serves: 12 – 18 depending how many pieces you cut

Time: 20 min hands-on, then 45 – 48 min baking

Level: Nice and easy

Need: Any of these size tins will be suitable: 28cm x 18cm/12” x 7” or a 25cm/10” square tin, which I used. A 20cm/8” square tin will probably be OK but the deeper mixture might need a bit longer in the oven.

Main Ingredients

125g/4½oz butter or Stork
200g/7oz white caster sugar
1 large egg
300g/10oz self-raising flour
Pinch of salt
125ml/4½fl oz buttermilk or milk + a little more if needed
125g/4½oz blueberries
100g/3½oz white chocolate pieces
Zest from half an orange

Crumble ingredients

125g/4½oz golden caster sugar (or use white)
100g/3½oz plain flour
65g/2¼oz butter
Zest from the other half of the orange

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C / fan 160°C / 350°F / Gas 4. Butter and line the tin with baking parchment – leave two opposite sides high enough to lift out the baked contents.

2. Beat the butter and sugar in a large bowl, until light and fluffy. (Rub a small amount between finger and thumb – if it feels grainy, beat some more.) Beat in the egg with a tsp of flour.

3. Sift over the flour and salt then fold this in with the chocolate pieces and buttermilk. If the mixture seems excessively thick, add a little more liquid. Gently stir in the zest and most of the blueberries.

(Don’t cut the chocolate too small, have a few “proper chunks” in there too.)

4. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin. Level the surface and add on the remaining blueberries.

5. For the crumble, mix together the flour and sugar and rub in the butter until the mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle this evenly over the main mixture. Tap the tin on your work surface a couple of times to settle it then bake for around 45 minutes. The crumble should have begun to go golden brown.

6. Leave in the tin to cool, but grate over the remaining zest. After 10 min. cut part way through; later cut fully into pieces and remove from the tin.

(Unsurprisingly, the crumble topping is rather … err crumbly … and will break up if not cut carefully. I use a gentle sawing action with a serrated knife.)

Here’s a short gallery showing some of the process. I also have an admission to make. You may have noticed a few small black spots on the surface. I had the idea that a quick blast with my blowtorch might give more colour to the finished bake. It was NOT a good idea. Fortunately, I realised immediately and little harm was done, but I’m still rather embarrassed about it.

I hope you enjoy this lovely bake. Click this link for more tasty traybake recipes. or have a look at my site for lots of other great recipes, both sweet and savoury.