Something completely new to me – Diana gave us a small box of elderberries that she’d picked from a tree on her property. I never knew we grew them in Australia!
The raw berries weren’t particularly exciting to eat, but they added a beautiful colour and tartness to the apples and rhubarb that we stewed them with. The cooked fruit was topped with a crumble mixture and baked for 40 minutes. I used the crumble recipe from River Cottage Everyday Cooking, and it was most fine…
- 225g plain (AP) flour
- pinch sea salt
- 200g cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
- 150g caster, granulated or soft brown sugar (or mix of any of them)
- 75g medium oatmeal
- 75g ground almonds
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Gorgeous berries, Celia. I didn’t know we grew them either!
Amanda, Di always manages to surprise me – last time she brought me a bag of medlars! :)
Celia, we drink elderberry/elderflower cordial in Tasmania all the time, and some soda water added it became my welcome drink to interstate guests. We love it, there is a red version and a clear version. Ashbolt is the name of the company and they sell it on the mainland as well. I keep looking for it on the road as it can also grow as a weed or wild is a better term. PS the only cordial I ever indulge in. Roz
Roz, thanks, I’ll look out for it! I’ve tried elderflower cordial before and I’m not a huge fan, but the elderberries might be quite nice…
Never had elderberries, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen them “in person”, but they sure look beautiful…
very nice recipe!
Thanks Sally – they really were pretty! :)
elderberry is my all time favorite pie fruit!
They grow here in the wild, along roads and on disturbed ground. It also make a wonderful syrup.
Your crumble looks good!
So glad to see the humble elderberry highlighted!
Heidi, it must be lovely to grow berries wild like that. We have a wonderful temperate climate, but as a result, berries are scarce in Sydney. I made the crumble again today, albeit with frozen blackberries and rhubarb (and rhubarb we really CAN grow! :))
Don’t think I have ever eaten a fresh elderberry before. Your cobbler looks lovely and the crumble sounds like a great recipe.
:-) Mandy
Thanks Mandy! The berries aren’t that great to eat raw – I tried a couple – but they were a nice addition to the crumble! :)
I have had elderberry cordial made by my friend in Germany, it’s great. I would love to try the crumble.
Deb, I wish I could have shared it with you! But it’s unlikely elderberries will come our way again any time soon.. :)
Celia, I have never been able to harvest mine as the chooks seem to find them delicious!
Mrs Bok, it must be quite a low tree if your chooks can get to the berries? I always thought they grew quite high up? Or do you have ninja chickens like we do? :)
Have you ever had Elder Flower Champagne, you sort of make it like homemade gingerbeer (in theory), its beautiful. Love the colour you’ve created with stewing them apples & rhubarb too.
Anna, I saw this on River Cottage, it looked very interesting. I don’t think I’m quite up to fermenting my own brews yet..still, you never know.. ;-)
If you have elderberries, you have elderflowers earlier in the year – elderflower cordial is wonderfully tasteful and a useful ingredient! A project to note, for next year!
I thought, but I may be wrong, that raw elderberries shouldn’t be eaten in large quantities – that’s why they don’t taste very good when raw! Despite elderbushes growing rampant in the wild here, there are very few recipes for using the berries!
Lovely looking crumble by the way – a crumble is definitely better with added oats for texture.
Thanks for letting me know that, Suelle! We didn’t have a lot anyway, but it’s a good warning!
It’s great getting to taste new things isn’t it? I looked up australian elder on Wikipedia just now – the sambuccus is a big family of plants isn’t it? I made Pontack sauce from the Pam Corbin book a while back with some elderberries, and occasionally they find their way into hedgerow jams and jellies but Him Indoors is suspicious of most berries as you know, though a total elderflower cordial junkie. The elder grows everywhere here, bordering on weed status….
Ah yes, I forgot about B’s thing about all things red, and this is indeed very very red! The sauce sounds nice – I wonder if I could do something similar with other berries?
I don’t think I’ve ever seen them in their berry form before.
Love a crumble!
Brydie, they were new to me too! Which is why I had to take a photo.. ;-)
I just realised that I had no idea what elderberries look like until now! I really want to taste cloudberries which are berries that Mr NQN’s mum raves about. I don’t know of my chances though here although if you got these maybe there is hope! :)
Lorraine, there is a wonderful cookbook called Falling Cloudberries, have you seen it? I think cloudberries are very much a cold climate Scandinavian food…
Cloudberries grow wild in Finland, and I suppose Sweden and Norway. They tast great.
You can get elderflower/berry? cordial at Ikea.
Thanks love, I’ll get the boys to have a look next time they’re there. It doesn’t feel right buying food from Ikea though.. ;-)
Beautiful berry :) It must be so nice in any recipe :)
Tes, thank you! :)
Oh and re the old wives tales thread from before, you must by the way never never never chop down and elder tree. If you do a goblin will come and steal your baby or something else dreadful will happen. I think the canes were once used for weaving cradles. Elder trees can get pretty untidy but they are actually hard to eliminate as they sucker underground.
Frances, there you go. Lucky I don’t have an elder tree, since it sounds like they grow like weeds – it would be terrible if you then couldn’t chop them down! ;-)
Wow! I’ve never tasted elderberry. Doesn’t HFW make an elderflower/berry sparkling wine? Or am I thinking of some other berry..?
Chris, yes indeed, I’m sure one of the RC eps had Hugh making elderflower champagne for a bonfire night! Have you brewed your own bubbly drinks? I’ve never been game – I always imagine things exploding..hahaha
Ahh, good to see the brain was accurate for a change!
Yes, we brew occasionally – beer for the Man and sometimes we brew fruit juices – there is an amazing kit available called ‘oztops’ (i think that’s what it’s called..it’s been a while)..which just a small sprinkle of wine yeast into a 2ltre bottle of juice (apple, grape, cranberry, your choice), produces the most refreshing, bubbly alcoholic drink! We get our brew kits and oztop yeast from the local homebrew shop – he’s always extremely helpful!
Glass .can. explode if you’re not careful, although the solution to this is to make sure you properly ferment the drink first and then not add too much sugar to overcarbonate it later in the bottle. Some people brew in re-used cleaned out soft drink bottles to avoid this problem though.
Kinda an old fashioned and forgotten fruit over here – which means it’s wonderful. It makes great jams and jellies, and most famous as a homemade wine ingredient.
I have several in my yard, but I can’t keep the deer from eating all the fruit before it ripens – they eat the bushes too.
Doc, elderflower wine! That’s right – I remember it being mentioned in Wind in the Willows! :)
I love crumbles! So tasty.
Maz, don’t you have a whole range of different names for crumbles in the US? I seem to recall reading about crisps and cobblers and pandowdies – all pretty much what we’d call a crumble. Is there a big difference between them?
Ah Celia, this really does reflect that we live at opposite ends of the world. Our elderflowers aren’t even in bloom yet. It will be months before I see the berries … mind you the flowers make a great truffle (cream infusion!).
Oooh Gill, you are clever with your truffles – elderflower chocolates! :)
I love going to the Ikea here and getting the elderberry soda. I’ve also had elderberry jelly. How lucky you are to have them growing locally. I haven’t had elderflower cordial, but everyone I know who has raves about it. :) Your crumble looks delicious. Its making my mouth water. I think I’ll have to dig out that bag of frozen mixed berries have and make a crumble now. :)
Hi Cat, not very local – my friend Di has them on her farm, but it’s a few hours out of Sydney! Hope you had a nice crumble for dessert tonight! :)
MMMMMMM,…My father has these plants with their fruits in his garden. I love the taste & flavour too! This crumble dessert looks so tempting & quite fabulous too!
It is all about real flavours in here!
Thanks Sophie! How great that your dad has a tree, hopefully that means you have lots of berries and flowers to play with! :)
My best ever homemade wine was crabapple and elderberry.
A syrup is useful in the kitchen too.
Lee, I haven’t tried making my own wine yet. The lovely Italian neighbours had a gurgling vat for years – I was always terrified it was going to explode!
Love Elderflower and berries and this is the time of the year when they sneak out for a few short weeks. In fact went foraging yesterday for some flowers but…nothing yet.
Apart from colour, did the berries impart a distinctive flavour to the crumble? They look nice anyway
Oz, they added a little tartness, but they weren’t overly flavoursome – their contribution was mainly their gorgeous red colour!
Hi Celia,
The crumble looks delicious. Wish I could have tasted it!
I am a big fan of rhubarb.
The elderberry also has medicinal qualities. Different parts of the bush are useful for various things. Elderflower/berry juice is a good immunity booster.
Manuela, thanks for letting me know – I’ll look up the medicinal qualities. In terms of rhubarb, our plants have been growing really well, so we now have a fairly continuous supply of rhubarb! Given it costs a fortune at the shops, I’m pretty happy about that! :)
I didn’t think you could cook with elderberries successfully – so now I know. My parents used to make elderberry wine.
Sally, they’re not great eating, but added a nice touch to the crumble! :)
My mum makes delicious Elderflower Champagne! And she has plenty of trees nearby (not far from Di’s if you remember). We made great elderflower cordial this year and I have flowers in the freezer for the next batch. Not too keen on the berries.
“Preserved” has a great recipe for Elderflower and Champagne sorbet.
I have had cloudberry jam from IKEA, by the way. And I have had cloudberries (preserved) at a fabulous Scandinavian restaurant long since closed down. Would love to try the real thing too…one day!
My mum grows these on the Sunshine Coast and turns them into a mild wine fermented just like homemade ginger beer. Lucky you to have a great friend to give you some!
Further to my post in “freezer cookies”…
Elderberries have wonderful health-giving properties…looking here:
http://www.herbal-supplement-resource.com/elderberry-herb.html
Elderberries can: treat infections, treat cold and flu symptoms, reduce fever, clear skin complaints, is a mild laxative and diuretic, helps with sinus infection, lowers cholesterol, is anti-ageing, and boosts the immune system.
I can vouch for the flu/cold elixir. Celia! Get it into your fellers!!