Berry Crumble Slice

This Berry Crumble Slice is delicious – the recipe comes from my Nana and my Mum has started making it too!  To make it, use whatever berries are in season with a matching jam for the filling.  I first tired this slice at Christmas time when my Nana had made it using strawberries.  It was amazing!  I couldn’t get my hands on any strawberries so I used blueberries instead.  The slice turned out just as great (it disappeared pretty quick when I took it into work) and I can’t wait to try out using different varieties of berries.  This is a simple slice and makes a delicious sweet treat to fill the tins.

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
240g butter, softened
150g sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
1 punnet of berries (at least 125g – the slice in the photos is made using blueberries)
1 cup jam (in a the same flavour as the berries)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180°C.  Grease and line a slice tin (the one I used was 16cm x 26cm) and set aside.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Beat through the vanilla essence.  Mix in the flour and baking powder.  Press ⅔ of the mixture into the base of the prepared tin.  Bake for approximately 10 minutes, or until the base starts to go golden in colour.
While the base is baking, chop the berries in half.  In a medium sized bowl, mix the berries and jam together. 
Once the base has begun to go golden, remove it from the oven and spread the berry mixture over the top.  Place bits of the remaining dough mixture over the top of the berry layer (my Mum and I flatten pieces of the mixture in our hands and break off bits to cover the jam with.  I think my Nana crumbles it between her fingers over the top of the jam layer).  Bake for a further 25 – 30 minutes, or until the crumble on the top has gone a golden brown colour.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool before cutting into slices.