Top things to do with blackberries?

[DrRingDing]

Last week we made blackberry & gin frozen yoghurt.

What do you do with blackberries that you rate?

 

[spanglechick]

Blackberry vodka.

 

[Corax]

Juggle.

 

[danny la rouge]

Brambles, or outdated smartphones?

The brambles aren't out here yet; we're still on the last of the raspberries. Brambles are usually September. I like bramble and apple crumble.

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

Pour some cream and sugar on top.

 

[DrRingDing]

I'm in that there London and they've been ripe for a couple of weeks.

Crumble is always good.

 

[cesare]

Blackberry and apple pie

Blackberry and <whatever> smoothie

Blackberry jam or bramble jelly

 

[trabuquera]

Crumble - all other options are inferior.
Blackberry lattice tart as the nearest competitor.

 

[8ball]

Blackberry wine ftw.

 

[purenarcotic]

Bin them. Horrible fruit.

 

[felixthecat]

Blackberry whiskey. Makes even that wretched stuff from Lidl drinkable.

 

[5t3IIa]

I picked a load and put them in a bowl in the fridge then forgot about them until they grew fur then I threw them away

 

[8115]

Compote.

 

[Corax]

Stick them up my bottom.

 

[xes]

pie
crumble
pie
crumble
pie
crumble
etc.

 

[Poot]

1. Make cake mix (110g caster sugar, 110g butter, mix, 2 eggs, mix, 110g sf flour, mix).
2. Stick blackberries in casserole dish
3. Stick cake mix on top. Smooth.
4. Cook in oven 180c until it looks yummy.
5. Serve with custard.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Mum-tat tends mainly towards the jam options.

We picked about 6 lbs of blackberries in her garden last weekend

 

[mr steev]

The brambles aren't out here yet; we're still on the last of the raspberries. Brambles are usually September. I like bramble and apple crumble.

They're not ripe here yet either, but i have never seen so many flowers and now unripe fruit on them. It's going to be a bumper year I reckon.

I'd go for apple and blackberry crumble too, or jam or blackberry and elderberry wine

 

[RubyToogood]

I'm not sure I'd class this as a top thing to do with them, but blackberry junket is interesting. It's from Richard Mabey's Food for Free book. Basically you just take the ripest blackberries you can find, press them through a sieve to extract the juice, and leave this undisturbed in a bowl in a warm place for a few hours. It sort of thickens and sets. I have no idea how this works.

 

[DrRingDing]

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2499648/blackberry-upsidedown-cake-with-blackberry-syrup

^^^This is what's now in the oven.

 

[DrRingDing]

 

[jakethesnake]

Blackberry whiskey. Makes even that wretched stuff from Lidl drinkable.

how do you do this then?

 

[Epona]

Blackberry & apple crumble is the classic, you can't really go wrong with it. Or bramble jam - you probably need to either add apples or use some of that jam sugar with extra pectin so that it sets properly. My parents' place backs onto a field and between the end of their garden and the field is about a 5 foot wide bramble patch. I like visiting in the autumn when the berries are ripe, I'm not one to say no to free food (and their hazel tree is usually weighed down with nuts around the same time, although it's now grown so tall that it is difficult to reach them!) Supposedly there's a bumper crop of autumn berries this year so plenty for the birds to share with us

One thing I found with wild-picking blackberries is that they tend to go mouldy very quickly (like overnight!) compared to processed/washed/treated stuff that you buy in the supermarket - so take them straight home and do something with them there and then - even if it's just rinsing and lightly stewing them to put in the freezer for later use in sauces and desserts.

 

[Greebo]

I picked a load and put them in a bowl in the fridge then forgot about them until they grew fur then I threw them away

Conceptual art. At least you hadn't had to pay for them .

 

[Greebo]

I'm not sure I'd class this as a top thing to do with them, but blackberry junket is interesting. <snip> It sort of thickens and sets. I have no idea how this works.

The pectin in the fruit makes the pulp set to a soft jelly - you can do the same with ripe raspberries. It doesn't keep that long even in the fridge (because it's raw fresh fruit), but it's far less work than jam, and useful when there's a glut which you have to pick twice a day.

Good for using instead of jam, as a cheesecake topping, with icecream etc. That's a point - I wonder if it'd make ice lollies which are solid but not rock hard?

 

[Greebo]

I'd second with the thing of just covering a dish of blackberries with a layer of cake mixture and baking - if you want to go slightly upmarket, you can do the French equivalent of that - clafoutis.

 

[ChrisD]

The blackberry and apple crumble season starts on August 23rd. I say so. That's my birthday treat.

 

[mr steev]

One thing I found with wild-picking blackberries is that they tend to go mouldy very quickly (like overnight!) compared to processed/washed/treated stuff that you buy in the supermarket - so take them straight home and do something with them there and then - even if it's just rinsing and lightly stewing them to put in the freezer for later use in sauces and desserts.

Definitely. I find that just rinsing them will mean they last another day or two in the fridge. If you put them all in a big bowl of water the manky ones and ones with stalks still attached will float to the top making it easy to pick them out, but they do need to be used or stored pretty quickly.

 

[Ms T]

We made wild blackberry frozen yoghurt the other day - it was very good indeed, especially with a small splash of creme de mure in the mix.

 

[DrRingDing]

We made wild blackberry frozen yoghurt the other day - it was very good indeed, especially with a small splash of creme de mure in the mix.

Creme de mure? That looks tasty.