Berry delicious

Baking only ever occurs in my house on the weekends unless a cake must be baked for a special occasion. This morning, I found myself with a surplus of blackberries. I had bought a ton of them for a smoothie-making marathon that occurred this week in celebration of a new blender. For those of you who have read in the past, you'll know that many of my appliances are still lurking in the shadows of my pantry with English plugs. The red kitchen-aid blender remains useless.

I finally broke down and bought a blender so that healthy glasses of yogurt and berries can be drunk. After returning from dinner one night this week with colleagues, I found Martin had made a smoothie for dinner. He decided his dinner-smoothie needed a little extra "something" and added Jack Daniels. Needless to say, this is not what I had in mind for our health kick.

If blackberries were made for anything, then this coconut blackberry slice is it. Serve it as you would cookies- for an afternoon snack with milk or coffee. If you've never checked out any of Bill Granger's recipes, I urge you to do so. They are each filled with Australian sunshine and goodness.

You can adapt this to any number of fruit combinations depending on the season.

Coconut Blackberry Slice

Adapted from Bills Food by Bill Granger

Makes 20

For the base:

4 1/2 oz unsalted butter at room temperature

1/4 cup caster sugar

1 free-range egg

1 tsp vanilla extract (the good stuff)

1 1/2 cups plain, all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 cup of milk

For the filling:

1/2 cup blackberry jam

1 cup blackberries

For the topping:

3 1/2 oz unsalted butter

5 tbs caster sugar

2 free-range eggs

2 1/2 cups desiccated coconut

1/2 cup plain, all-purpose flour

Preheat your oven to 180C or 350F. Grease and line with parchment paper a 12x8 inch baking tin.

To make the base, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla extract and stir to combine. Sift the flour and baking powder together and add to the mixture with the milk. Flour your hands and press this into the tin. Top evenly with the jam and then the blackberries.

For the topping, cream the flour and sugar together until fluffy, add the eggs and beat until combined. Stir in the coconut and 1 tbsp of the sifted flour and stir to combine, then stir in the remaining sifted flour. Spread the topping over the blackberries.

Bake for 30 minutes until golden. Cover with foil and cook another 5 minutes. Let it cool for 10 minutes and then cut into rectangles. Makes about 20.