3 tasty recipes for your foraged ‘blackas’

Blackberries, or blackas to those of us from Cork, are in abundance at this time of year, and will remain on the garden hedges and roadsides well into the autumn.

More than just a fruit, they evoke memories of happy childhoods, gathering the berries with siblings and friends for mam to make pies and tarts and jams. Today, it is a tradition at risk of being lost to time constraints and convenience foods.

Blackberries freeze very well and can be kept, so you can bring back memories of warm summer evenings over the winter months with a hot crumble in front of the fire or a cheesecake for Sunday afternoon dessert.

My favourite time to bake is early in the morning when the house is quiet. The smells of home baking help everyone to start the day in a happy mood!

Here, I am sharing three of my simplest recipes for you to try, using berries foraged from my garden over the past week.

The first step when foraging is to wash your hands thoroughly, and the hands of any smallies that are helping you! Rince your berries under the cold tap through a sieve and leave to drain.

The first recipe is for the simplest of jams.

Adrienne’s Blacka Jam

Weight up 350 grammes of your foraged blackberries and 350 grammes of jam sugar (currently on offer in Dunnes stores for €2 per 500g). Jam sugar has pectin added to it to set your jam, so it couldn’t be easier.

Put the berries and the jam sugar into a wide bottomed pot and push the berries down with a fork to break them up a little. Heat to a boil, stirring continuously.

When it comes to the boil, stir in a knob of butter and a teaspoon of vanilla if you like, and leave it for four minutes without stirring. Set aside to cool a little. Pour into a heat-proof jar and put in the fridge when cold.

Note: do not try and rinse out the pot when it is still hot as the melted sugar will solidify. Better to scrape out the pot while the jam is still warm then use boiling water to clean it.

This jam will sit happily in the fridge for a few days, if it lasts that long. Delicious with buttermilk scones and a cup of tea.

Blackberry & Apple Crumble

For this, I use 350 grammes of berries and three large cooking apples. Place the berries and the apple chunks into an ovenproof dish and sprinkle with four tablespoons of golden caster sugar. (Add more sugar if you wish. I like my fruit crumbles tart).

For the crumble, use 200 grammes of plain flour, if you don’t have that to hand, I find self-raising works just as well.

Add 120 grammes of cold butter cubed and use your fingers to blend these into breadcrumbs. I like to leave mine a little lumpy as I like the buttery flavour.

Stir in five tablespoons of golden caster sugar. Sprinkle on top of the fruit and generously sprinkle demerara sugar on top. Bake at 180C for 30 minutes.

Delicious served warm with ice cream.

Note: if you like, add 50 grammes of porridge oats and/or 50 grammes of ground almonds.

No-Bake Simple Cheesecake

This is best made in the morning for serving later in the day so it gets time to set properly.

Ingredients

• 200g digestive biscuits
• 80g butter
• 400g full fat cheese (don’t be tempted to go for a low fact version as consistency is what matters here).
• 80g caster sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 285ml double cream
• 250g blackberries crushed
• To decorate:
• 50g blackberries
• Shavings of good quality white chocolate
• Icing sugar if liked

Method

• You can either use a food processor to blitz the biscuits or you can go in with your hands and crush them up until fine. Add the melted butter and using a spoon stir until every crumb is well coated.
• Put the biscuit mixture into a springform tin or a tin with a removable base and push down with the back of a spoon.
• Put into the fridge to chill.
• Put the cream cheese, sugar, double cream and vanilla into a bowl and beat with an electric whisk until thick and creamy. This takes about four minutes on full speed. Fold in blackberries gently and place on the biscuit base. Put into fridge for at least eight hours. When serving, sprinkle with icing sugar if preferred, a few blackberries, and the white chocolate shavings.
• So simple and so indulgent. Enjoy!