Archive for: Blackberry
Berries are always a nice addition to scones, because even the most buttery scones can be a little bit dry (hence the popularity of clotted cream and other spreads as condiments) and berries add a punch of flavor as well as a little bit more moisture to every bite of an otherwise buttery scone. This recipe for Blackberry Scones starts out with a basic vanilla scone dough. Butter is rubbed or cut into a flour mixture to create a flaky dough base, which is held together with milk before whole blackberries are kneaded in.
I happened to have a lovely basket of fresh blackberries in my kitchen and added those to my scones. Frozen blackberries will work just as well, and since they’re much firmer than my fresh berries, they won’t make as much of a mess when you knead them in. Don’t worry if blackberry juice gets into the dough as you incorporate the berries: the juice will add color and flavor to your scones. I topped my scones off with a generous sprinkling of coarse sugar before baking, adding a little extra sweetness and a nice crisp topping.
These scones are best when they are still a bit warm from the oven, when the berries are still firm and that sugary topping is still crunchy. Serve them plain, with a cup of tea or coffee, or put them on your table with butter, clotted cream or even whipped cream (because those things are still excellent with berry-filled scones). If you can’t eat all of these in one sitting, they will keep well for a couple of days when stored in an airtight container, but taste better if they are slightly warmed before serving.
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This Lemon Blackberry Coffee Cake is another recipe that takes advantage of fresh, summertime berries. I, obviously, used blackberries in this case. Blueberries are definitely more popular for muffins and coffee cakes than blackberries are, since they tend to hold their shape and not “bleed” too much juice into a baked good. But there are advantages to using bigger, juicer berries: the fresh blackberries give this coffee cake an almost cobbler-like feel to it – which makes this one coffee cake that is just as good for dessert as it is for breakfast. You can use frozen berries, tossing them in a teaspoon or two of flour before stirring them into the batter, but if you can get fresh berries you’re going to get the best results.
The cake batter itself is moist and buttery, enriched with both butter and buttermilk for a very flavorful base for the blueberries. Lemon zest is creamed into the butter and sugar, which releases even more of the potent lemon oil from the zest as it rubs against the coarse sugar. The lemon flavor does not dominate the cake, however, which allows the berries, buttermilk, vanilla and other elements of the cake to stand out without being overshadowed by tangy lemon.
Like so many other coffee cakes, this one is topped with streusel. To complement the lemon in the buttermilk coffee cake batter, I added some lemon zest to the streusel as well. The streusel doesn’t have a strong lemon flavor, but you can clearly taste the extra lemon when you’re eating the cake and that gives it a nice brightness, as well as adding a sweet and crunchy topping to the moist cake.
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Cream cheese is a great topping for muffins when served as a spread, but it isn’t often incorporated into the muffin batter itself. Cream cheese can actually make a great addition to muffin batter, adding moisture and a hint of cheesecake flavor to what would otherwise be a relatively plain muffin. I used it as part of the base for these Blackberry and Cream Cheese Muffins, which manage to remind me of cheesecake with berries every time I make them and makes me feel a bit like I’m serving dessert with breakfast.
These muffins are very moist and soft, with a lovely background flavor of cream cheese that really makes the fresh blackberries stand out. While you could actually substitute other berries into this recipe, I find that a perfectly ripe blackberry has a rich and jammy flavor that works particularly well with the cream cheese – not to mention the fact that the berries really pop with color against the paler backdrop of the muffin crumb! Try your berries before using them, as you will get the best results with the best berries.
I tend to make this recipe in the spring and summer, when I have plenty of fresh berries available to me. If you don’t have fresh berries, know that frozen berries will still work well in these muffins. If you decide to use frozen berries, do not defrost them and toss them in about 2 teaspoons of flour before folding them into the muffin batter so they don’t “bleed” any juice into the batter (this doesn’t affect the taste, but it makes for a nicer presentation).
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Souffles are a very versatile dessert because they are light, yet satisfying. Chocolate souffles can be fairly rich and you might not want to have one after a very meal. Lemon souffles, on the other hand, have a bright and fresh flavor that you can always make room for. These Lemon Blackberry Souffles have an easy to make lemon base that is made with fresh lemon juice and lemon zest. There is very little added fat in these – aside from the egg yolks that give the souffle their body – so they actually are just as light as they taste.
The souffles themselves are lemon. The blackberries are actually buried at the bottom of the ramekins, underneath the cloud-like lemon topping. In the oven, they become sweeter and juicier, and add some extra sweetness to the souffles when they’re served. I used fresh, whole blackberries for these souffles. You can substitute other berries, such as raspberries, blueberries or boysenberries. If you only have frozen berries, defrost and drain the berries, then spoon them into the ramekins in a single layer. You’ll have a saucier result this way, as the fresh berries hold their shape well during baking, but you’ll still get the same great flavor.
These are best served when they’re fresh from the oven, warm and rising dramatically above the rims of their ramekins. The recipe doesn’t take long from start-to-finish (and it is possible to prepare the base earlier in the day and beat in the egg whites just before baking), so it’s fairly easy to pop these into the oven at the end of a meal and be ready to eat them just as the coffee has finished brewing. If you must let them sit before serving, they’ll deflate a bit, but they’ll still have great flavor and will be enjoyable to eat.
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Cranberry sauce can be a great addition to a cobbler or crisp recipe. The basic cranberry sauce recipe calls for whole berries and sugar, which are also the two main ingredients in most fruit cobbler recipes (although you can use fruits besides berries, of course!). The cranberry sauce is already cooked, so it isn’t necessarily a great choice on its own to serve as the base for a cobbler, but it can be combined with all kinds of other fruits to make some delicious desserts.
This recipe for Blackberry Cranberry Sauce Cobbler is a great way to use a little bit of leftover cranberry sauce. It uses whole blackberries and whole cranberries, in addition to the cranberry sauce. The blackberries are much sweeter than the cranberries, so they give a rich flavor and a nice sugar level to the dish. The cranberry sauce helps to bring out the flavor of the cranberries without emphasizing their tartness, which simply adding more cranberries could do.
Use fresh or frozen berries for this dish, depending on what you have on hand. I like it simple, with just a bit of ice cream or whipped cream on the side. It is definitely best when it is fresh from the oven – especially if it is cold outside! If you don’t have cranberry sauce, add an extra half cup of blackberries. The cobbler will have a little bit less of a pronounced cranberry flavor than the cranberry sauce version, but it will still turn out to be a tasty, simple dessert.
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