Blackberries!!
I grow a bumper crop all the way up my driveaway. I get away with it, 'cause the brambles are technically on my neighbor's property, not mine. It's their infestation problem... and my berry deliciousness!!
I get creative with blackberries:
Blackberry Crisp:
1. Pick some berries, gently rinse, layer in a baking dish.
2. Melt a stick of butter into 2 cu. oats + 1/2 cu flour + 1/2 cu raw sugar
3. Stir crumble top 'til... uh... crumbly and drop over berries
4. Bake in 350 degree oven for 1/2 hour (or 'til browning and bubbly and yummy)
Blackberry Freezer Jam:
1. 8 cu berries, rinse and smoosh to smitherines
2. Add two packets of freezer jam stuff from Pectin
3. Mixed with HALF THE SUGAR!!
4. Bottle, set, freeze!!
The "half the sugar" is a valuable tip, believe me. Those recipes on the jam packets are for all types of fruit incl frozen tart stuff. When you're picking ripe berries that fall into your bucket when you touch 'em, two whole cups of sugar to 8 cups of berries tastes like STRAIGHT SUGAR. Yuck. If you wanna taste the berries, go easy on the sugar and taste test before adding more. I learned this the hard way. Inedible! Bleh!
1. About 3cu of flour + a stick of melted butter + 1/4 cu sugar (like shortbread!!)
2. Bunch of blackberries - like 2 cu - with another 1/4 cu sugar + flour mixed
3. Mix just barely and press into baking dish
4. Bake 40 mins in 350 degrees or until it smells HEAVENLY
This is absolutely ADDICTIVE. Forget store-bought pie crust, forget the fancy-schmanzy top layer that screams "I'm an awesome pie-maker and you're not!" Just whip this out and you'll have to make it again. And again. And AGAIN!! And then you'll cry when there's no more blackberries.
(The brownies in the background are made my my sis-in-law who is a renowned baker of great popularity. I don't compete with her. When I bake, I imagine myself more like the Swedish Chef with ingredients flying. I make that big of a mess, too.)Original Something-or-Other Blackberry Thing:
(Yea, I know I need a real name. Bare with me.) So, you're out of oats and you're not sure about pie, but you have lots of graham crackers leftover from summer S'more's....
1. Crumble a couple packs of graham crackers to make about 3+ cups
2. Add 1/4 cu sugar and a stick of butter (yes, I like butter. REAL butter. So, what?!)
3. Pick a bunch of berries (2 cu?), rinse and layer in baking dish
4. Mix the basic graham cracker crust recipe and sprinkle it on top for fun
5. Bake at 350 degrees for awhile - 'til bubbly and browned and yummy
This turned out amazing. I mean, with these ingredients, you can't really go wrong, right? If I were in England, I'd whip out the Digestives. But they're hard to get here. So... I didn't.
[Speaking of.... My mom made something out of Digestives and chocolate that I still dream about and drool over... but she's forgotten how she made it and I can't duplicate it. Any ideas?! Anyone?! It's a layered thing. And the chocolate is soft and the crust is chewy/crumbly and I think I'm missing a key ingredient or four. WHAT IS IT?!?!]
Did you do some fun stuff with blackberries this year?!
