Berry Tasty!

September, for me, marks the blackberry season. No not the hand held mobile device which, for many, became a crackberry, but the glistening crowd of juicy black druplets encircling a tiny seed. They can be bought in markets, supermarkets and greengrocers or picked in the wild where they are known as brambles.

I have many fond memories of picking them in the countryside. We knew from year to year which hedgerows held them and would make a family trip to gather them. With camping friends we would take plastic bags to the railway embankment and return to the campsite with scratched arms and purple fingers and mouths holding our treasure aloft with pride. In those days they would often be preserved for the winter by bottling and enjoyed during the winter months in pies and crumbles. (I think I have previously mentioned crunching on a snail shell which had been bottled all winter!)

This year I have battled the nettles and picked a few pounds which I have mostly frozen. I did however make a delicious pudding:-

Blackberry and Apple Tray Bake

175g butter

300g plain flour

2 bramley apples

1 red apple

2 tbsp lemon juice

300ml double cream

3 eggs

220g caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

300g blackberries

Oven 170/gas 3. Butter & flour a pudding dish 20x30cms

Peel, core and thinly slice apples & toss in lemon juice

Melt butter in cream in saucepan gently - do not boil. Cool.

Beat eggs & sugar & add to cream & butter mix with vanilla essence stirring

Fold in flour then apple and blackberries

Pour into pudding dish & bake for 40 mins. 

Should be puffed up, slightly golden and crisp at edges. Skewer should come out cleanly.

Absolutely yummy served with custard, cream, creme frache, ice cream or greek yogurt!

Blackberries are high in vitamins and low in calories - perhaps they are the new crackberry to which we shall become addicted!