Homemade Blackberry Syrup a superb extra touch

Just a little extra touch, this Blackberry Syrup, that made our pancakes extra super. Yes, best prepared with fresh blackberries, which the produce aisle of the grocery store certainly can provide. But this time of the year, we’ll simply wait on fresh berries until our blackberry vines have their winter’s nap and ideally bear abundant fruit as they did at the start of this summer. For now, frozen blackberries, thawed, make a good substitute.

Truthfully, I never imagined myself being able to stir up my own homemade Blackberry Syrup, but Southern Living helped me out with a terrific recipe in its “Food Gift of the Month” feature. It recommended bottling this up in a glass swing-top bottle as a hostess gift or party favor.

The blender-processed blackberry puree is run through a wire-mesh strainer so that the pulp and seeds are removed. (A few stray seeds actually escaped and made their way into mine, but the syrup didn’t suffer any for it—made it like a version of warmed blackberry preserves.) A delight on pancakes or waffles, although the magazine also says to serve it on biscuits, fruit salad, or cobbler.

Blackberry Syrup

3 cups fresh blackberries (can sub 1 16-ounce package frozen blackberries, thawed)

1 1/4 cups sugar (or sugar substitute)

1/4 cup light corn syrup

1 teaspoon cornstarch

Process blackberries in a blender until smooth. Stop to scrape down sides as needed. Press blackberry puree through a fine wire-mesh strainer into a medium sauce pan. Use back of a spoon to squeeze out juice (about 1 1/2 cups). Discard pulp and seeds. Add sugar and remaining ingredients to blackberry juice in pan. Bring mixture to a boil over medium heat. Stir occasionally. Boil, stirring occasionally, 1 to 2 minutes or until sugar is dissolved and mixture is smooth. Remove from heat and cool slightly (about 30 minutes). Serve warm or at room temperature. Makes about 2 cups. (Source: Southern Living, July 2012)

Queen of Desserts—this Blackberry Cobbler gets my vote

Homemade blackberry cobbler—quadruple yum! Am I livin’ the dream, or what? . . . walking out to my own blackberry vines, hosing down those fresh berries in my own kitchen sink, laying them out on the bottom of an oiled dish, dusting on the sugar mixture, and lacing a lattice crust over the top. It made a beautiful cobbler on which we’ve been feasting for days.

This recipe, I’m proud to report, is from my very own cookbook—Way Back in the Country Garden. It’s the dessert that my cousins Bill and Jana brought to the meal served before Aunt Frances’ funeral three years ago. An absolutely superb and fail-proof recipe. I really think that Blackberry Cobbler must be the queen of desserts, rivaled only by homemade Peach Cobbler, which is upcoming soon on this blog.

It has reigned around our house for several days—best news yet, I divided the cobbler into two square pans and managed to squire one away for the days in which those vines of summer are a memory.

Blackberry Cobbler

2 quarts blackberries

2 cups sugar (or sugar substitute)

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 stick butter

1 purchased pie crust, or crust made from your favorite recipe

melted butter for brushing crust

extra sugar (or sugar substitute) for sprinkling over crust

Spray with cooking oil a 13-by-9-inch baking dish (or two square baking dishes). Spread the blackberries into the dish. Mix sugar and flour; then sprinkle mixture over berries. Slice the stick of butter into 1/2-inch slices; then dot the butter pats over berries, sugar, and flour. Place pie crust strips in a crisscross pattern over the berries. Brush the crust with melted butter; sprinkle with extra sugar. Bake at 350 degrees until the cobbler is golden brown. Makes 6 servings.

A berry, berry nice Berry Sauce makes great topping for ice cream

Remedy for a hot, 105-degree summer night: ice cream (sugar-free, of course) with a smooth topping of Berry Sauce. Delicious all the way down; the berries (combination of raspberries and blackberries in a thick, sweet sauce) are healthy and the topping wonderful.

“Celebrating a Healthy Harvest” furnished this recipe and suggested it could be used atop ice cream, biscuits, or shortcake. Hubby immediately began asking whether this could be served on toast or whether it had to be confined to ice cream (not that that would bother him, Mr. Ice Cream Man himself).

I combined the two berries (our grocery has oodles of both varieties right now; they’re on sale) to make the sauce, which keeps well in the fridge. Anything (especially a welcome blessing like this ice-cream topper) that helps us get through these hot summer days is terrif.

Berry Sauce

1 cup sugar (or sugar substitute)

4 cups raspberries or blackberries or combination

1 tablespoons corn starch

3 tablespoons cool water

In a saucepan over medium-low heat cook berries and sugar until mixture is bubbly; simmer for 20 minutes. In a small cup mix together corn starch and water. Add slowly to berry mixture; stir gently. Simmer and stir until mixture begins to thicken. Remove from heat when the sauce is the desired thickness. Cool. Makes about 1 1/2 cups of sauce.

Mature quickly, little apple tree! Roasted Apples with Berries stirs the imaginations.

A big ole gap like a snaggled-toothed smile existed along the front row of our garden. The lineup went like this: pear tree, peach tree, peach tree, blank spot. Some time ago a peach tree had died there and had not been replaced. Elsewhere in back yard we also have a plum. We’ve never tried apples, but all the other fruit trees now are mature and producing well. What fun to have our own apples! Hubby decided to give it a try, so over the weekend he filled the gap with one. Time will tell.

To stir our imaginations about what delights might await if we could walk to our garden and bring in our own apples like we soon (ideally) will our peaches, I hatched up a batch of Baked Apples with Berries. This capitalized on the bounty of berries that fills the produce aisles of grocery stores right now. Hubby’s strawberry allergy prevents from indulging in that wonderful fruit, but he can indulge with all the rest. (How can a strawberry seed irritate his digestive system but a blackberry seed doesn’t faze him? Go figure, but we just go with the flow.)

This dish combines raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries—everything that’s on his green-light list—and stuffs them down into a hollowed-out cavity in a Granny Smith apple; all that bakes for 45 minutes. After baking the wonderfully soft apple interior combine with the roasted berry mixture for some terrific flavor. Remaining berries are mixed with yogurt, honey, and cinnamon, poured over the top, and served warm, with extra berries sprinkled on top.

The recipe called for four servings; we had so much of the yogurt-berry topping left over after the apples were downed that Hubby enjoyed it for a great low-cal dessert last night (or, next time we could have baked six apples instead of four and used the entire topping amount in six).

Now that the snaggled-toothed gap in the garden has been filled, bring on the apples!

Baked Apples with Berries

1 cup fresh blackberries

1 cup fresh raspberries

1 cup fresh blueberries

4 large Granny Smith apples, washed

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup fat-free, vanilla-flavored yogurt

2 teaspoons honey

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Starting at the stem, core apples about three-quarters of the way through the apple. Make the hole more than 1-inch wide. Spray baking dish with cooking spray; place hollowed-out apples in the dish. Combine berries; pack berries very firmly into the opening in each apple. Set extra berries aside. Bake apples until soft, about 45 minutes. Divide remaining berries in half. Crush half the berries; then mix them with yogurt, cinnamon, and honey. Serve apples warm with yogurt topping and extra berries sprinkled on top. Makes 4 servings.