Conference turris::cooks

    One year when one of my friends had a bumper crop of blackberries, at
    our annual home-made ice cream party (used missed it - two weekends
    ago) we made a batch of blackberry ice cream - boy, was it good!  We
    just made a normal fruit puree like you would with blueberries or
    whatever, plus sugar, and then forced it through a sieve before adding
    it to the other ice cream ingredients (egg custard base and whipping
    cream) in the cranker.     

    We were clearing our back lot and came across a batch of Blackberries
    last weekend and I "made up" this recipe -- came out real good.
    
    The base for this was a store bought Torte base, one of those thin
    sponge cake/shortcake shells that you find in the produce department,
    about 12" in circumference, but you could also use the small shortcake
    shells for individual ones.
    
    1 - 8 oz. package of cream cheese - softened
    1 - tbs. sugar
    2 - tbs. creme de cassis (or your favorite liquore)
    
    Mix these together until creamy, you may want to add a little more
    sugar to sweeten to your tastes.  Spread across torte base.
    
    Remove any stems and leaves from berries, wash, drain and dry berries.
    Spread a layer of berries across cream cheese base.
    
    1 - pkg. sugar free Jello, Berry flavored (they have a 3 berry flavor,
        the name escapes me)
    
    Mix Jello according to instructions and pour approximately 1/2 to 2/3
    of mixture over top, just enough to cover berries.
    
    Chill, eat palin or top with your favorite whipped topping or icecream.
    
    If you want to get creative you can make lots of different types of
    glazes to go over berries, but it is basically a low-cal cake.  You can
    substitute Equal for the sugar and get real low-cal, but it tastes
    richer than it actually is.  Enjoy!
    
    
    
    

Try some of the "older" desserts:

A blackberry fool:

Mix sweetened whipped cream with lightly sweetened blackberry puree.  Make
the puree by forcing berries through a sieve to remove seeds and add
sugar to taste.  Cook over low heat until sugar is melted.  Cool and chill
in fridge.  Mix approx. 1:1 ratio of whipped cream to puree, and don't mix
uniformly - leave streaks of berry color and white.  Pile into wine goblets
for serving and serve for dessert with lemon sugar cookies.

A blackberry pandowdy:

Make crust to fit an 8 inch square baking dish (or use the prepared crust,
rolled and trimmed to fit the dish.  The crust should come up the sides
of the dish, but it does not have to come all the way up.  Fill the crust
with berries, sweeted with sugar to taste, and with enough quick cooking
tapioca for the amount of berries (the box will have the correct measurements
for the berries - the pie directions).  Dot the top of the berries 
generously with butter.  Cover with a top crust, attached to the rim of the 
baking dish.  Bake at 325 degrees for approx. 25 minutes...pull the dish
from the oven and chop up the top crust into the blackberry mixture, mixing
well.  Replace in the oven and bake until all bubbly and browned around
the edges.  Serve warm with cream fraiche (cultured cream) sweetened with
a little brown sugar, or with fresh sweet cream.  Sorta a pudding and sorta
a pie.  This is Pennsylvania Dutch cooking.

A blackberry and apple grunt:

In a large cast iron skillet (I don't know if any other kind of pan will
work - never tried any other kind), mix sliced apples (golden delicious
are very good for this - but any of your favorite will do), blackberries,
sugar to taste (as for a pie - depending on the size of the skillet and
the sweetness of the berries, you just have to wing this part), 1/4 cup
apple juice.  Don't fill the skillet to overflow - leave 1/2 inch or so.
Start cooking over low heat to bring up the juice - stirring gently but
often to keep it from scorching.  Meanwhile, make a soft biscuit dough...I
use bisquik (1 and 1/2 cups bisquik, 3/4 cup milk, 4 tablespoons sugar,
1 teaspoon cinnamon - mix with fork just until mixed good).  When the
apples are just getting tender, drop plops of dough over the top of the
skillet, covering the fruit.  Cover with a domed lid for 10 minutes to
steam the top of the dough.  Remove the cover and simmer over low heat
until the topping appears done when pierced with a fork - not doughy.
The name of this dish comes because the fruit will bubble up on the
sides, forcing the dough cover up and making a grunting noise.
Again, serve with cream or ice cream....warm is best.

    
    Had a bottle of this given to me and decided its gooood stuff. 
    Had it over vanilla ice cream and in hot tea as its a little sweet
    by itself.
    
    BLACKBERRY LIQUEUR
    
    3 cups fresh berries
    1 clove 
    1/2 cup sugar syrup to taste
    2 cups vodka
    1 lemon wedge, scraped peel
    
    
    Rinse berries and lightly crush.  Add vodka, lemon peel, and clove.
    Pour in DARK bottle and store for 3-4 months.  Strain through dampened
    chessecloth squeezing out as much juice as possible.  Add sugar
    syrup to taste and store another 4 weeks.  Liqueur will tend to
    be on the watery side.  Try adding glycerine if thicker consistency
    isdesired.  Good for baking.
    
    Yields 3 cups   container wide mouth quart jar.
    
    
    I didn't have a DARK jar so I covered it with foil.  Should work
    that way.  Also you can use bluberries instead of black.
    
    
    Jackie
    
    
    

    Add the washed berries to oatmeal muffin recipe -- they are the
    best!

    These recipes were taken from September, 1989  House Beautiful.
    
    TANGY BLACKBERRY CHUTNEY
    
    This chutney can be served with pork or game.
    
    3 T olive oil
    1 medium onion chopped
    1 T minced garlic
    1 1/2 t salt
    1/4 white wine vinegar
    1/2 to 3/4 c light brown sugar
    1 t ground cumin
    1/4 t cayenne
    1/2 t ground cinnamon
    1/2 t ground nutmeg
    4 c sliced peaches
    1 c blackberries
    1/2 c walnut halves
    
    In a large skillet over medium low heat, heat olive oil, onion, and
    garlic, stirring frequently, 5 minutes, or until onions are tender and
    garlic is fragrant.  Add salt, vinegar, sugar and spices, blend well.
    
    Reduce heat to low and add peaches, blackberries and walnuts.  Continue
    cooking 12 to 15 minutes or until fruit is slightly tender but not
    mushy.  Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.  Cover and
    refrigerate over night before serving.  
    
    Chutney will keep up to 4 months when stored in an airtight glass jar
    in the refrigerator.
    
    
    
    ********************************************************************
    
    
    SAUTEED VEAL CHOP WITH BLACKBERRY SAUCE
    
    4 - 1" thick veal chops
    Salt, Fresh ground pepper to taste
    Vegetable oil
    1 c dry red wine
    1 c chicken stock
    1 c blackberries
    4 T unsalted butter
    
    Season chops with S & P.  In 2 large lightly oiled skillets, sear chops
    on one side over high heat, until golden brown, about 5 minutes.  Lower
    heat to medium, turn chops over and cook 12 minutes more or until
    tender but still slightly pink on the inside.  Remove skillet from
    heat, transfer chops to a serving platter, voer and keep veal warm
    until ready to serve.
    
    Return skillets (with drippings) to high heat, add 1/2 c wine to each
    skillet and reduce by half.  Consolidate pan reductions into one
    skillet add chicken stock, bring to a boil and boil 2 minutes.
    
    Add blackberries and butter to skillet and stir so butter melts evenly. 
    Season with S & P to taste.  Ladle sauce over chops and serve
    immediately.
    
    Serves 4.
    
    
    *I made this, but used pork chops, just be sure the pork is cooked all
    the way through -- should not be pink in the middle!
    

    Yummy, you are lucky to have this treasure in your back yard.  I would
    eat em plain, on ice cream, berry shortcake, on cereal, in pie, in
    muffins, on pancakes, in yogurt, mixed with other fruit....you could
    give them to me........
    
    Enjoy your berries.
    
    Anne

    Liquify them in your blender, force the pureed berries through a sieve,
    and add to homemade ice cream batter (with the usual quantity of sugar
    when adding fruit pulp) - we did this one year for our annual homemade
    ice cream party when a friend's blackberry bushes produced a bumper
    crop, and it was real good!  (You don't really have to sieve the pulp,
    but it does help to get rid of seeds and pits.)
    
    /Charlotte

    Was hoping I would find something here or in my cookbooks -- nothing, I
    am looking for a recipe for a blackberry coffeecake type of thing.  My
    blackberry bushes are overflowing, even after the birds and critters I
    am getting 1 - 2 pints day!
    
    dana
    
    

    
    
    Rep .9
    
     Take a standard 9" yellow cake recipe and the cover the batter with
    a layer of blackberries. Mix 1/4 C brown sugar, 1/4 C AP flour, 1/4 C
    butter or margarine, 1/2 to 1 tsp cinnamon, and 1/4 C nuts together
    and sprinkle over the berries. You can also place all or topping stuff
    into a processor with a steel blade and pulse a few times to mix.
    Bake per the cake recipe adding abot 5-8 minutes to the baking time.
    I do this with blueberries all the time. You could also use a white
    box cake mix for a 13x9 pan just go to 1/3 C in the topping mixture.
    
    
    -mike