Tag: berries

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Fresh Blackberry Buttercream

My celebration of blackberry season continues with this fantastic buttercream recipe that highlights this delectable fruit that grows everywhere here in the Seattle area. The picture above features this frosting on a light and fluffy vanilla cupcake, cored and filled with a tart blackberry filling, which is a great contrast to the sweet, sweet buttercream.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) Unsalted Butter, softened
  • 1/2 tsp. Lemon Juice
  • 3/4 cup Fresh Blackberries
  • Approximately 4 cups Powdered Sugar*

*The volume of powdered sugar needed to get this to a good consistency for piping will depend on just how softened your butter is and how juicy your berries are, so follow your instincts.

Directions

  1. In a large bowl or stand mixer, blend together butter, lemon juice, and blackberries.
  2. DON’T PANIC! The fat in the butter and the juice in the berries will not really combine until you start adding the sugar. Keep calm and carry on!
  3. Add powdered sugar one cup or less at a time, blending thoroughly after each addition, until the mixture is a proper consistency for piping.
  4. Enjoy on your favorite cake, cupcake, or in a graham cracker sandwich for a quick, sweet treat!
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Blackberry Crêpes

It’s blackberry season here in the Pacific Northwest! Hooray! When you return from berry picking with purple fingers and a few scratches, and you’re looking for a quick recipe that makes the most of your toil, this is just the ticket.

Ingredients

Crêpes

  • 1 cup All-Purpose Flour
  • 1-1/2 cups Whole Milk
  • 2 Large Eggs
  • 2 tbsp. Vegetable Oil
  • 1/4 tsp. Salt

Filling

  • 4 cups Fresh Blackberries
  • 1 cup White Sugar
  • 2 tbsp. Corn Starch
  • 2 tbsp. Butter

 

  • Powdered Sugar to garnish

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to warming temperature (170 – 180 degrees) and insert a heat-proof plate.
  2. Lightly oil a skillet with rounded sides* and place over medium heat.
  3. In a large bowl or stand mixer, blend together flour, milk, eggs, oil, and salt until completely combined and smooth.
  4. Pour a little less than 1/4 cup of batter into hot, oiled skillet.
  5. Immediately lift skillet and tilt in a circular motion to distribute batter as widely, thinly, and evenly as possible across the bottom of the pan.
  6. Return the skillet to the heat.
  7. When the top of the batter is no longer shiny throughout, carefully insert a thin spatula underneath and flip.
  8. Cook for an additional minute, and then turn crêpe out onto warm plate in the oven.
  9. Repeat steps 4 through 8 until all the batter is cooked. (Makes 8 – 10, depending upon the size of your pan and how skillful you are at swirling the batter.)
  10. Rinse blackberries, and place in a medium-sized sauce pan over medium heat.
  11. In a small bowl, combine sugar and corn starch.
  12. Add corn starch mixture to blackberries and stir to combine.
  13. Cook and stir frequently until blackberry mixture thickens.
  14. Remove blackberry mixture from heat and add butter in small clumps.
  15. Stir until butter is melted and well combined.
  16. Assemble crêpes by spooning a generous scoop of blackberry filling in a long strip onto each crêpe, and folding the sides of the crêpe over the filling.
  17. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve immediately.

*A 10-inch or larger, light-weight, non-stick pan works great for this. Unless you fancy a sprained wrist, you definitely don’t want to use a heavy cast-iron skillet as you will be lifting the pan and swirling the batter to distribute it evenly.

Sneaky Trick: Wiping the warming skillet with a paper towel to evenly distribute the oil and avoid pooling will help the crêpes brown evenly. If you can hear the batter sizzle when you put it in the pan, you’re using too much oil.

 

A little encouragement…

If you’ve never made crêpes before, I guarantee you that the first one you attempt will be a disappointment. It will be too thick, or stick to the pan, or break, have chunky batter, or even singe. Be brave and keep trying! After a few attempts, you will get the hang of it. And, crêpes are so versatile that you will be making them for every meal before you know it.

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REAL Blueberry Muffins

These aren’t cupcakes masquerading as muffins like you might get at the coffee drive-thru.  These are stick-to-your-ribs, real mother-f*cking muffins! The batter stands up strong to hold a LOT of delicious blueberries, and it works great with raspberries or blackberries, too. These muffins are lovely served with a little smear of butter or margarine.

Ingredients

  • 2 cups Frozen Blueberries (or even more if you’re feeling brave!)
  • 1 cup Milk
  • 1/4 cup Vegetable Oil
  • 1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
  • 1 Large Egg
  • 2 cups All-Purpose Flour
  • 1/3 cup plus 2 tbsp. White Sugar
  • 1 tbsp.  Baking Powder
  • 1/2 tsp. Salt

Directions

  1. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.
  2. Line a cupcake tin with paper cupcake liners. (This should make about 16 in a standard-sized cupcake tin.)
  3. Put frozen blueberries in a colander and run warm water over them for about thirty seconds, just enough to soften them a bit.  Shake the colander to keep them from sticking together and set aside, allowing to drain.
  4. Combine milk, vegetable oil, vanilla extract, and egg in a large bowl and combine well.
  5. Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl.
  6. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix very gently until just combined. (Do NOT use a stand mixer or electric hand mixer for this step.) Your batter should be very lumpy.
  7. Shake blueberries one more time to make sure they’re not sticking together and add to batter.  Mix until JUST distributed throughout batter, but no more. The secret to a great textured muffin is a light hand while mixing!
  8. Spoon batter into prepared cupcake tin until each is about 2/3 full.
  9. Wipe any drips from around the edges of the tin with a damp paper towel. (You will thank me when it’s time to wash the tin!)
  10. Bake in pre-heated oven for 20-22 minutes until they begin to brown on the top. (If you’re using fresh berries, reduce the cooking time by about two minutes.)
  11. Remove from tin immediately and transfer to a cooling rack.
  12. Serve while still warm… or hot if you can’t wait!
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Razzleberry Tarts

These tarts are a hot mess of ooey-gooey goodness, and as an added bonus they are quite large. These are the absolute best when still warm out of the oven, but if any are left over (Ha ha ha… yeah, right!) they can be re-heated by covering in foil and warming them in a 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes. The crust is the tried-and-true recipe everyone knows and loves, and can be used for many different varieties of pies and tarts. Warning: Do NOT wear a white shirt while eating!

THE CRUST

Ingredients

  • 2 cups All-Purpose Flour
  • 1 tsp. Salt
  • 2/3 cup + 2 tbsp. Shortening
  • About 6 tbsp. ice cold water

Directions

    1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
    2. Place several ice cubes in a large drinking glass or Pyrex measuring cup and add cold water. Set aside.
    3. Mix flour and salt in a large bowl.
    4. Add shortening and combine with a pastry blender until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
    5. Slowly add ice cold water, thoroughly combining with flour mixture until the dough pulls away from the side of the bowl and is joined into one large, slightly moist lump.
    6. Turn approximately half the dough out onto a floured surface, flipping until the exterior is coated in dry flour.
    7. Press down with your hands into a very rough approximation of the shape you want.
    8. Use a floured rolling pin to roll dough until it is less than 1/4 inch thick. Thinner is better (1/8 inch is ideal!) but too thin and your crust may be inundated with juices from your filling and have a soggy bottom like a toilet-training toddler.
    9. Place a single-serving aluminum pie tin upside-down on the dough, and cut with a sharp paring knife approximately one inch wider than the lip of the pan.
    10. Line pan with the dough you have just cut. It should protrude above the lip of the pan.
    11. Repeat cutting dough and lining pans until four aluminum pans have been lined with dough.
    12. Turn out remaining dough onto a floured surface, flipping until the exterior is coated in dry flour.
    13. Press down with your hands into a very rough approximation of the shape you want.
    14. Use a floured rolling pin to roll dough until it is less than 1/4 inch thick.  Again, 1/8 inch is ideal.
    15. Use a clean ruler as a guide and cut dough into 1/2 inch wide strips with a pizza cutter.
    16. Set strips aside, and keep the ice water handy.

Sneaky Trick: Don’t have a pastry blender?  A fork held in each hand will also perform this task admirably. Just pull them across one another against the bottom of the bowl until you have that crumbly consistency you want.

THE PIE

Ingredients

  • 16 oz. Frozen Mixed Berries or Fresh Berries (Blackberries, Blueberries, Raspberries, and Strawberries are the traditional mix, but go crazy!)
  • 3/4 cup White Sugar
  • 1/4 cup Corn Starch
  • 4 tbsp. Margarine
  • 1 Egg White, Beaten

Directions

  1. Pour frozen mixed berries into a large bowl to defrost while you are preparing your crust. If they’re slow to thaw, pop them in the microwave on a defrost setting for a few minutes. They don’t need to be completely soft, just not hard as a rock. Your berries can also be fresh.
  2. Cut any extra-large mutant strawberries until they are about the same size as the blackberries and raspberries.
  3. Add sugar and corn starch to berries and combine.  Avoid crushing berries as much as possible while mixing.
  4. Spoon berry mixture into prepared pie crusts and dot each tart with 1 tbsp. margarine, cut into a few small pieces.
  5. Moisten ends of dough strips with ice water and use strips to create a lattice pattern on the top of each tart.
  6. Press the ends of the lattice strips into edges of bottom crust, dipping your fingers into the ice water to help them adhere if they’re stubborn.
  7. Crimp edges of bottom crust and lattice strips around the edges of the pans.
  8. Put tarts on a cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil. (If you skip this step, you will have to clean your oven and stand on a chair to turn off the smoke detector. Just sayin’.)
  9. Brush crust with beaten egg white.
  10. Bake in pre-heated oven for 40-45 minutes, until pastry has browned and filling is bubbly.
  11. Serve with vanilla ice cream or lightly sweetened whipped cream.

Sneaky trick: Don’t want to go to the trouble of making a lattice crust, but want it to look like you slaved over the proverbial hot stove for hours? Roll top crusts and trim to about 1/2 inch wider than the top rim of the pans. Use small cookie cutters to make shaped holes in the dough and set cut-outs aside. Attach top crust to the tart, and dab the dough cut-outs with a little ice water. Reattach the cut-outs over the holes you made in the crust, but slightly off center from where the holes are. This will vent your tarts and give you a snazzy look.

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