Blackberries, pie, and the like...

[BAVBMW]

Ok, I'll admit, this is my first ever thread in the OD. Rarely I'll respond to one here, but for the most part I'm quiet, merely soaking up the entertainment between jaunts to the Tech's Only section. In any case, I'm hoping the wealth of knowledge that abounds here, in so many areas, can help me out today. Knowing the interests of those who frequent here, I"ll try to keep it interesting as well. Here goes:

Sometime in the midst of last summer, my girlfriend, who happens to be the opposite sex of me, and I loaded up our dogs, one of whom does at times bear a resemblance to the dreaded Pit Bull breed, hopped into my 4x4, 17 MPG (on a good day) SUV and drove up to our nearby National Forest, well National Monument actually... it seems that a former Democratic president felt it neccessary to designate it as such, since it had previously been getting along just fine and causing not much stir at all. Once we got there we headed down a road, or Horrible Rape of the Landscape, as it's known by some, to a spot were I have been known to, from time to time, hunt. I realize that at nearly a two hour drive, it's much less convienient than the grocery store, but beneath my barbarian, bloodthirsty, knuckle-dragging exterior, there lies an individual who likes to get out into the world and live life just a little, and if this happens to put me in closer touch with my food, well heck, I'll enjoy that too. In any case, on this day we were there not so much for hunting (being well out of season anyway), but for general purpose wandering. What we found was that this area was filled with wild berry bushes. So we parked the SUV, I strapped on a handgun, as I may very well be not alone in my interest in berries (bears have been known to like them as well), and proceeded to pick about as many berries as we could carry/store. We headed home, with our berry bonanza in hand.

This was not just a one time occurance, we went back to the berry patch several more times over the summer and into the fall, once even after the Sept 16th deadline, whereby, according to European folklore, all the berries remaining on the vine became the sole property of the Devil. For the record, he can have them, they're well past their prime by that point.

What this amounts to is that we have a freezer full of wild mountain berries, two different varieties, and a hybrid, seemingly of those two. They seem to defy classification by all normal means, but we have been getting along just fine by calling them, and treating them as blackberries. The thing is now, we'd like to start using them, or at least using them much more than we have been. We've made pies, blackberry cheesecake, blackberry bars, muffins, and even tried making some blackberry syrup. We're open to new ideas, the pies are great, but there may be some other great ideas out there. They go well on Cheerios also...

So the question is... Does anyone have any good blackberry ides and/or recipes? We'd love to hear them!

Ok, so that was my first new thread in the OD, I hope I did ok and filled it with enough info to keep even the most diehard Mercedesshop poster interested and keep the debate lively as ever...

MV

[raymr]

Sounds like you have sampled it all. If the spirit grabs you, make all the pies and cakes you can, and donate them to a charity or local food kitchen.

[Larry Delor]

Originally Posted by raymr

Sounds like you have sampled it all. If the spirit grabs you, make all the pies and cakes you can, and donate them to a charity or local food kitchen.

Speaking of "Spirit" - why not ferment some, and see what kind of "spirits" you can come up with.

[BAVBMW]

Spirits....

That has been one of my thoughts. I'd really love to hear some recipes for those. My mom has/had a friend who made some wonderful blackberry liqueur, but she's reluctant to call her up after so many years, just to get a recipe, my loss I suppose. If anyone has some ideas for fermenting, I'd be interested to say the least. I think we could manage it, as my girlfriend has had considerable success in the similar field of sourdough bread baking, what with the starter, natural yeast, hooch and all.

As for the other idea... I'm not really going to go there, as I'd like this thread to remain about the blackberries. All I'll say is that I thought the ant did nothing wrong...

MV

[Austin85]

JAM






....mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

[t walgamuth]

we have volunteer black rasberries that grow on the edge or our "woods". some years we pick them and other years we are too lazy.

i just follow the standard recipe for blackberry pie but i supstitute brown sugar. it adds a bit of flavor.

i also use brown sugar in all my fruit pies.

making fruit pies is one of my things. i also do waffles when we have family in. on waffles i add vanilla, and a bit of baking powder, and separate the youlks from the whites and beat the whites, then fold them in last for a crispy waffle. and i use multigrain flour for the waffles.

when i make spagetti sauce i add brown sugar and catsup for more flavor and cut up onions.

and when cooking eggs i use olive oil for a bit more flavor.

that is all the culinary tricks i know.


tom w

[Austin85]

Originally Posted by t walgamuth

we have volunteer black rasberries that grow on the edge or our "woods". some years we pick them and other years we are too lazy.

i just follow the standard recipe for blackberry pie but i supstitute brown sugar. it adds a bit of flavor.

i also use brown sugar in all my fruit pies.

making fruit pies is one of my things. i also do waffles when we have family in. on waffles i add vanilla, and a bit of baking powder, and separate the youlks from the whites and beat the whites, then fold them in last for a crispy waffle. and i use multigrain flour for the waffles.

when i make spagetti sauce i add brown sugar and catsup for more flavor and cut up onions.

and when cooking eggs i use olive oil for a bit more flavor.

that is all the culinary tricks i know.


tom w

GeeThanks TW; but have you ever cooked Belgian Waffles in your SEC?

One of the best waffle topping I ever had was in Holland at a street fair;

Nice Belgian waffles topped with warm slices of chocolate; fresh sliced strawberries; and toppped off with an abundance of powdered sugar.

Major YUM.


....

[t walgamuth]

not in the sec.

i wouldn't rule it out though.

lets see i would need a 12 volt 120 v converter, right?

tom w

[TheDon]

Originally Posted by t walgamuth

not in the sec.

i wouldn't rule it out though.

lets see i would need a 12 volt 120 v converter, right?

tom w

I believe so.. let me look it up on my crack.. err blackberry

[BAVBMW]

So far slated for this week is a blackberry cheesecake, with, of course, a blackberry topping.

No one has a blackberry liquour recipe? I learned to spell liquour for this very purpose (previously I both spelled and pronounced it as either "beer" or "bourbon" as the occasion required), surely it will not be in vain?

We'll have to try the brownsugar variation, it sounds good.

As for cooking the waffles in the car... I think I'm going to avoid that one (for starters, as a MBZ tech, rather than MBZ owner, I'm thinking most of our customers would not appreciate me trying that out in their cars...). However, I have at times practiced the (arguable) art of cooking on an automobile engine.

I know there have got to be some good berry ideas out there, I thought there was even a Berryhill ranch belonging to a member...?

MV

[TheDon]

make some jam.. I like homemade jam

[Larry Delor]

Mash the berries and combine them with vodka (maybe a pint of berries to a fifth of Vodka) Let this sit in the bottle for a month.
Combine 1/2 cup of sugar with 1/4 cup of water - heat until sugar is dissolved (you now have a "simple syrup")
While the syrup is cooling, strain the vodka/berry mixture(coffee filter or the like). Use the syrup to sweeten the flavored booze.
You can experiment and to the berries add such things as: lemon zest, orange zest, or whatever other berries/flavors you like.

[raymr]

Years ago I had a wheat beer with some kind of syrup poured in. The concoction has a name which I forget, but it was tasty. Maybe it can be made with Blackberry syrup?

[Mistress]

Originally Posted by BAVBMW

Ok, I'll admit, this is my first ever thread in the OD. Rarely I'll respond to one here, but for the most part I'm quiet, merely soaking up the entertainment between jaunts to the Tech's Only section. In any case, I'm hoping the wealth of knowledge that abounds here, in so many areas, can help me out today. Knowing the interests of those who frequent here, I"ll try to keep it interesting as well. Here goes:

Sometime in the midst of last summer, my girlfriend, who happens to be the opposite sex of me, and I loaded up our dogs, one of whom does at times bear a resemblance to the dreaded Pit Bull breed, hopped into my 4x4, 17 MPG (on a good day) SUV and drove up to our nearby National Forest, well National Monument actually... it seems that a former Democratic president felt it neccessary to designate it as such, since it had previously been getting along just fine and causing not much stir at all. Once we got there we headed down a road, or Horrible Rape of the Landscape, as it's known by some, to a spot were I have been known to, from time to time, hunt. I realize that at nearly a two hour drive, it's much less convienient than the grocery store, but beneath my barbarian, bloodthirsty, knuckle-dragging exterior, there lies an individual who likes to get out into the world and live life just a little, and if this happens to put me in closer touch with my food, well heck, I'll enjoy that too. In any case, on this day we were there not so much for hunting (being well out of season anyway), but for general purpose wandering. What we found was that this area was filled with wild berry bushes. So we parked the SUV, I strapped on a handgun, as I may very well be not alone in my interest in berries (bears have been known to like them as well), and proceeded to pick about as many berries as we could carry/store. We headed home, with our berry bonanza in hand.

This was not just a one time occurance, we went back to the berry patch several more times over the summer and into the fall, once even after the Sept 16th deadline, whereby, according to European folklore, all the berries remaining on the vine became the sole property of the Devil. For the record, he can have them, they're well past their prime by that point.

What this amounts to is that we have a freezer full of wild mountain berries, two different varieties, and a hybrid, seemingly of those two. They seem to defy classification by all normal means, but we have been getting along just fine by calling them, and treating them as blackberries. The thing is now, we'd like to start using them, or at least using them much more than we have been. We've made pies, blackberry cheesecake, blackberry bars, muffins, and even tried making some blackberry syrup. We're open to new ideas, the pies are great, but there may be some other great ideas out there. They go well on Cheerios also...

So the question is... Does anyone have any good blackberry ides and/or recipes? We'd love to hear them!

Ok, so that was my first new thread in the OD, I hope I did ok and filled it with enough info to keep even the most diehard Mercedesshop poster interested and keep the debate lively as ever...

MV

Let me know if you decide to make jam, I'll send you my address so you can unload a few jars.

[Carleton Hughes]

I was going to suggest making Brandy,fairly easy but takes some time. Many recipes and directions online,of course I follow the dictates of an old Sicilian fellow who uses a water cooler bottle with a balloon rubber-banded about the rim.