Showing posts with label Berries. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Berries. Show all posts
I had picked up a variety of berries to use this past week, and my next door neighbor also brought me some blackberries so I decided to use them up by making a crumble type of dessert. These kinds of desserts are also known as fruit crisps or crunches.
North American crumbles are quite different than British crumbles. In the UK they tend to use just white sugar, butter and flour and the crumble mixture is much finer. Here in North America, crumble toppings are rough and rugged and more coarse, usually made with brown sugar and sometimes, but not always, containing the wholesome goodness of oats.
The recipe I am sharing today is one I borrowed from Hope Helmuth's book, Hope's Table. She is a Mennonite so you just know it is good. Like the Amish, they are wonderful cooks!
Her original recipe used rhubarb and was twice as large. Mine uses mixed berries, and I took the option of cutting it in half to serve fewer people.
Most crisps/crumbles start off with just a layer of fruit in the bottom of the dish and a crumble topping. Hers differs somewhat in that you make a sauce to fold the fruit into before you pop it into the bottom of the dish.
I thought this was unusual and it did sound delicious. There is also some jam in the sauce. For her rhubarb crunch she used strawberry jam, but today for my mixed berry one I used a wild blueberry jam.
We are at the height of berry season here and there is no better way to highlight them than to use them in a delicious crisp/crumble/crunch!
WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE GRANDMA'S MIXED BERRY CRUNCH
Simple every day baking cupboard ingredients, aside from the berries that is!
For the fruit filling:
- 2 cups (380g) of mixed seasonal berries (blackberries, blueberries, raspberries)
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup (120ml) water
- 1 TBS cornstarch (corn flour)
- 1 TBS fruit jam (strawberry, blueberry, blackberry, etc.)
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
For the crumble topping:
- 1/2 cup (70g) plain all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup (40g) old fashioned rolled oats
- 1/2 cup (100g) soft light brown sugar, packed
- 1/4 cup (60g) melted butter
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
I used fresh berries, because it is berry season after all, but if you don't have fresh berries you can use frozen I am sure. Mix them into the sauce frozen. It may take slightly longer for them to cook, but you will know they are done when the berry filling is bubbling away.
I used a mix of blueberries, blackberries and raspberries. You could also add strawberries or gooseberries, pitted cherries etc. Just whatever stone fruit of berry that you have. I think chopped plums would also work well.
I like to use the large flaked oats in the topping. You can use regular if that is all that you have. I just would not use quick or instant oats. I like the toothsomeness of the large flaked oats myself.
I used a blueberry jam, but raspberry jam would work well, as would strawberry, or blackberry, even cherry. It just adds a subtle flavor and helps to enhance the flavors of the berries. It also helps the sauce thicken.
HOW TO MAKE GRANDMA'S MIXED BERRY CRUNCH
This is a very simple dessert to make. Rich and delicious and so beautiful with some ice cream on top!
Preheat the oven to 350*F/180*C/ gas mark 4. Butter an 8-inch square baking dish. Set aside.
Wash and pick over your berries, discarding any twigs etc. You will need a generous 2 cups. Set aside.
Whisk the granulated sugar and cornstarch together in a saucepan. Whisk in the water. Cook over medium heat until the mixture bubbles and thickens. Remove from the heat and stir in the jam, vanilla and berries. Spread this mixture in the baking dish.
To make the crumble topping, mix together all of the topping ingredients until crumbly in a bowl. You can use your finger tips or a fork. Scatter this topping evenly over top of the fruit.
Bake in the preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes until golden brown and the fruit filling is bubbling. Serve warm with some vanilla ice cream.
This was exceptionally delicious. Sweet and buttery. I loved the fruitiness of the base and that crumble topping is to die for.
I enjoyed with a nice scoop of vanilla ice cream, but a huge part of me was wanting some warm custard or cream poured over top, in the British way. Yes, I have become a convert to the British way of serving puddings, and I do miss it! Funny how that goes!
If you have berries that you also want to use up might I suggest the following desserts:
BUMBLEBERRY SLUMP - A slump is a type of fruit dessert with a stewed fruit base and a puffy steamed dumpling topping. Bumbleberry is just a way of saying mixed berries. Its the perfect thing to do when you have lots of berries, but not a lot of any single one kind! Delicious!
MIXED BERRY & CREAMY CUSTARD TARTS - You can make your own tart shells from scratch for these delicious fruity tarts, or you can use ready made tart shells. Either way they are delicious. Crisp bases. Fresh fruit and a softly whipped cream and custard topping. Delicious!
BLACKBERRY AND CLOTTED CREAM SHORTCAKES - One of my favorite shortcakes. You have a rich and sweet glazed biscuit/scone filled with plenty of sweet berries and dollops of clotted cream. Should you be so lucky to have access to clotted cream. Otherwise you can just use softly whipped thick cream. Delicious any which way!
Yield: 4
Grandma's Mixed Berry Crunch
Prep time: 15 MinCook time: 40 MinTotal time: 55 Min
Timelessly delicious. Perfect served warm with a scoop of cold vanilla ice cream on top. Sweet and fruity with a crisp and buttery oat topping.
Ingredients
For the fruit filling:
- 2 cups (380g) of mixed seasonal berries (blackberries, blueberries, raspberries)
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup (120ml) water
- 1 TBS cornstarch (corn flour)
- 1 TBS fruit jam (strawberry, blueberry, blackberry, etc.)
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
For the crumble topping:
- 1/2 cup (70g) plain all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup (40g) old fashioned rolled oats
- 1/2 cup (100g) soft light brown sugar, packed
- 1/4 cup (60g) melted butter
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350*F/180*C/ gas mark 4. Butter an 8-inch square baking dish. Set aside.
- Wash and pick over your berries, discarding any twigs etc. You will need a generous 2 cups. Set aside.
- Whisk the granulated sugar and cornstarch together in a saucepan. Whisk in the water. Cook over medium heat until the mixture bubbles and thickens. Remove from the heat and stir in the jam, vanilla and berries. Spread this mixture in the baking dish.
- To make the crumble topping, mix together all of the topping ingredients until crumbly in a bowl. You can use your finger tips or a fork. Scatter this topping evenly over top of the fruit.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes until golden brown and the fruit filling is bubbling. Serve warm with some vanilla ice cream.
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Cobblers have to be one of my favorite desserts to bake, and there is nothing better than an easy berry cobbler for this time of year when we are right in the middle of berry season.
What I love about cobblers is there is no faffing about with crusts, no rolling, etc. You just pour some sweetened berries and pop them into a casserole dish, top with the cobbler topping and bake away.
They really make for a simple and delicious dessert option.
There is also quite a variance in how you choose to top them. Some people choose to top them with biscuits, some with store bought canned biscuits. There is really no right or wrong when it comes to cobbler.
Today I am topping mine with a lovely buttermilk cake-like batter, which is incredibly moreish and very easy to make. Again, no faffing about with rolling or cutting. Just beat everything together and dollop it on top!
.jpg "Mixed Berry Cobbler")
With this version as well, its up to you what berries you decide to use. I happened to have a mixture of berries in my refrigerator so I used blackberries, raspberries, blueberries and the last of my strawberries.
But you can use just one kind if that is all that you have, or any combination that you have available to use. I haven't used frozen berries, but I can't see why they wouldn't work as well. I think I would thaw them first however.
This recipe I am sharing today has been adapted and down sized from a recipe which I found in the cookery book, Baking at Home with the Culinary Institute of America.
.jpg "Mixed Berry Cobbler")
WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE MIXED BERRY COBBLER
Simple ingredients. Nothing out of the ordinary here. The original recipe made 12 servings. I have switched it out to serve only 6. (Maybe less if they are really big eaters.)
- 3/4 cup (105g) plain all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 4 TBS (1/4 cup/60g) butter, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup (100g) sugar divided
- 1 small free range egg, lightly beaten
- 1/4 cup (60ml) buttermilk
- 1 1/2 pints (3 cups) mix of blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries
.jpg "Mixed Berry Cobbler")
If you don't have small free range eggs, then you can use one half of a large egg which has been beaten together with a fork. This should equal 2 TBS of beaten egg that you will need.
Cream of tartar helps to stabilize whipped egg whites when making meringues, prevents sugar from crystallizing and acts as a leavening agent in baked goods.
Because this recipe uses both baking soda and cream of tartar you can substitute 3/4 of a teaspoon of baking powder in its place if you don't have any.
.jpg "Mixed Berry Cobbler")
Second you can just mix equal parts of whole milk and whole milk plain yogurt to equal the amount of buttermilk needed. (so 1/8 cup/30ml of each whole milk and whole milk yogurt, equaling 1/4 cup/60ml)
.jpg "Mixed Berry Cobbler")
.jpg "Mixed Berry Cobbler")
.jpg "Mixed Berry Cobbler")
.jpg "Mixed Berry Cobbler")
.jpg "Mixed Berry Cobbler")
.jpg "Mixed Berry Cobbler")
HOW TO MAKE MIXED BERRY COBBLER
This is really such a simple dessert. It does involve using your oven, but only for half an hour or so. Some things are just worth it.
Preheat the oven to 350*F/180*C/ gas mark 4. Butter a 7 by 11 inch baking dish really well. Set aside.
Sift the flour, soda, cream of tartar and salt into a bowl. Set aside.
In a stand mixer, fitted with a paddle, cream together the butter and 1/3 cup (63g) of the sugar on low speed until light in texture. Beat in the egg until smooth. (Alternately you can use an electric hand mixer.)
.jpg "Mixed Berry Cobbler")
Add the flour, alternately with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture.
Mix the berries with the remaining sugar and scatter them in the baking dish. Spoon the cake batter over the top in dollops.
Bake in the preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes until the filling is bubbling and a toothpick inserted into the cake batter comes out clean.
Let stand for 10 minutes and then serve warm, spooned into bowls with scoops of vanilla ice cream or pouring cream if desired.
.jpg "Mixed Berry Cobbler")
If you would prefer you can make a biscuit topping. This one is a simple version. You will need:
- 3/4 cup (105g) plain all purpose flour
- 3 TBS sugar
- 3/4 tsp baking powder
- pinch salt
- 3 TBS butter, cold and cubed
- 1/4 cup (60ml) cold buttermilk
- buttermilk and coarse sugar to glaze
.jpg "Mixed Berry Cobbler")
Whisk the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Drop in the butter and cut it in with a pastry blender, or two round bladed knives until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the buttermilk until evenly combined.
Take out spoonful's of the dough and gently flatten and stretch it with your hands. Place haphazardly on top of the fruit. Brush with buttermilk and sprinkle with sugar.
Proceed to bake as per the recipe, until the fruit is bubbling and the biscuit topping is golden brown and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
.jpg "Mixed Berry Cobbler")
This is really good served warm, spooned into bowls, topped with vanilla ice cream or pouring cream. I have never had a person turn down a bowl of this yet!
Some other great cobbler recipes on the blog are:
BUMBLEBERRY COBBLER - Containing random bits of all of the berries we have available at the moment, the only real requirement being that there be at least three different types of berries. Lightly flavored with lemon sugar and topped with a crumbly buttery, vanilla infused scone topping and baked until the berries are all bubbling up and sweet, the scone topping is browned and crisp, and the whole thing together is one delicious mass of tasty cobbler goodness.
SKILLET CHERRY COBBLER - This really is a very simple recipe, which enables you to get on with doing other things. Its as simple as popping your filling into an oven-proof skillet and topping it with an easy buttermilk biscuit topping.
Mixed Berry Cobbler
Yield: 12
Prep time: 15 MinCook time: 40 MinTotal time: 55 Min
There are about as many varieties of cobblers as there are people. This one boasts an almost cake type of topping. Its delicious served warm and spooned into bowls with ice cream.
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup (105g) plain all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 4 TBS (1/4 cup/60g) butter, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup (100g) sugar divided
- 1 small free range egg, lightly beaten
- 1/4 cup (60ml) buttermilk
- 1 1/2 pints (3 cups) mix of blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350*F/180*C/ gas mark 4. Butter a 7 by 11 inch baking dish really well. Set aside.
- Sift the flour, soda, cream of tartar and salt into a bowl. Set aside.
- In a stand mixer, fitted with a paddle, cream together the butter and 1/3 cup (63g) of the sugar on low speed until light in texture. Beat in the egg until smooth.
- Add the flour, alternately with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture.
- Mix the berries with the remaining sugar and scatter them in the baking dish. Spoon the cake batter over the top in dollops.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes until the filling is bubbling and a toothpick inserted into the cake batter comes out clean.
- Let stand for 10 minutes and then serve warm, spooned into bowls with scoops of vanilla ice cream or pouring cream if desired.
Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!
I am sharing a heavenly dessert with you today. Perfect for the upcoming national celebrations which, here in North America, we will be taking note of on both the 1st and the 4th of July. But holidays aside, this fabulously tasty dish is welcome any time and on any occasion!
Berry Angel Pie! What you have here is a really light dessert, which is perfect to serve after a heavy meal or when you have been BBQ-ing.
I have shared a lemon version of this before. You can find that recipe here. It is really lucious. I hope you will forgive me for the bad photography of that one.
It was pretty early in my blogging days and I didn't have a great camera, etc. I have improved a bazillion times since then!
I found myself earlier this week with a quantity of berries that needed using up. I love, LOVE berry season when you can enjoy your fill of fresh berries!
When I was living in the UK, we grew all of our own soft fruit in the garden. We had black currants, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, blueberries and gooseberries. I will miss having such an abundance of those little gems.
There is nothing so wonderful as being able to eat soft fruit like that, freshly picked. It just tastes so much better than the super-market stuff.
You never know how long it has taken for that fruit in the shops to get to the supermarket shelves. A lot of it comes from great distances away and it just never tastes that good to me.
These berries came from Ontario and Mexico, so, not quite as good as they will be a bit later on in the season. I saw fresh local strawberries at the farm market behind my house today.
A bit on the pricey side. As the season moves along they will get cheaper. I can't wait! I used to pick tons of strawberries every year when the children were growing up. Most of it got made into jam.
When you have five hungry children to feed, you go through a lot of jam, and strawberry was their favorite! As they got older they would help me pick berries, not their favorite job, but then again, do any children really enjoy this type of chore?
Probably not!
One year when we were visiting my in-laws on the Island, their father took them berry picking and when they got back my MIL let them set up a small stand at the end of the driveway so that they could sell some of their boxes of berries.
They sold every box more than once, lol. My in-laws lived in a community of retired folks.
The old guys were buying boxes of berries and then giving them back to the children so they could sell them again. The kids were amazed!
Most of the time in those days berries would be made into jam, or served as Strawberry Shortcake. Occasionally a strawberry pie would be baked, or a blueberry pie. (My father's favorites!)
Angel Pies are basically composed basically of a sweet meringue crust, which is baked in a moderate oven until golden brown. It is crisp on the outside, but chewy and marshmallow like on the inside.
Onto that goes lightly sweetened whipped cream and on top of that fresh berries
The meringue crust for this version is slightly different than the usual. It contains a small amount of baking powder, which makes it rise nice and tall.
It also has a quantity of broken cookies folded into the meringue before baking. I used custard creams because I was topping it with berries.
I knew that the vanilla like flavor of the custard creams would go very well with the berries. You might think that folding broken cookies into a meringue prior to baking it is an unusual thing, and perhaps it is.
But the end result is a fabulous crust. Crisp on the outside. Billowing and soft on the inside, and studded with these crunchy/chewy bits that become almost like a toffee-like, and yet not. Its hard to describe.
Your family will wonder what it is that is giving it that fabulous texture and flavor. You can't quite put your finger on it. Its just amazing.
I can think of only one word to describe it and it is this. MOREISH!
Combine that with the soft richness of whipped cream. Oh sure you could use frozen whipped if you wanted to and even the lower calorie frozen whipped topping if you are watching your calories.
In fact you could use low sugar, reduced fat cookies in the crust as well. But, I like to keep things as natural as I can.
Processed foods to have their place, but if I can use something natural and pure, I would rather use that.
I also prefer the flavor of real whipped cream over the artificial stuff. I am not even fond of squirty cream that comes out of the can.
I do sweeten the cream a tiny bit. I add about two teaspoons of sugar to it. It just adds a slight hint of sweetness.
I don't sweeten the fruit at all. I just wash it. Dry it. Slice the strawberries and then arrange them on top with the blueberries.
What you have here is a delightful dessert, with a crisp soft marshmallow inside base of a crust filled with toffee-ish bits, combined with rich cream and then tart berries.
Altogether this is incredibly delicious as well as being very simple and easy to make. I think you are going to love this one. I can pretty much guarantee your family will also!
Berry Angel Pie
Yield: 6
Prep time: 15 MinCook time: 30 MinTotal time: 45 Min
With its crisp meringue crust this is a real favorite during the berry season!
Ingredients
- 3 large free range egg whites
- 2/3 cup (130g) granulated sugar (in the UK use castor sugar)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 10 custard cream type of cookies/biscuits, coarsely broken into bits
- 1 cup (240ml) whipping cream
- 2 tsp sugar
- 1 cup (150g) sliced strawberries
- 1 cup (190g) fresh blueberries
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350*F/180*C/gas mark 4. Butter a 9-inch pie plate really well, or spray with low fat cooking spray. Set aside.
- Whisk together the first amount of sugar and the baking powder. Set aside.
- Beat the egg whites in a clean grease free bowl with an electric whisk until soft peaks form. Slowly start to add the sugar mixture, beating continuously, until the mixture becomes glossy and forms stick peaks. Fold in the broken cookies.
- Spread this mixture into the prepared pie plate.
- Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until lightly browned. It will look really puffed up, but don't worry it will sink.
- Allow to cool completely in the pan, on a wire rack.
- Whisk the cream along with the 2 tsp of sugar in a clean, grease free bowl until thick. Spread into the meringue crust.
- Top with the sliced berries. Serve immediately.
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