Sunday, September 18, 2011

Warm Whispers

Let me tell you a little secret.
Come closer, so you can hear my whisper...
I don't like blackberries very much.
??????!!!!







So why am I telling you this? Because I'm setting you up for the most delicious blackberry maple syrup recipe, that's why. : )
 This year was the best berry season ev-ah. The weepy canes, weighted down by precious sugary jewels that practically flung themselves into our baskets, made for the most fantastic of harvests. Even though blackberries are very low on my like list, I felt this urgency to pick as many as I could possible pick because they were free! And I ALWAYS love a deal, and they freeze beautifully.

















We made blackberry crisps, blackberry-peach jam, blackberry cobbler, sweet blackberry wine, but I'm hoarding most of the harvest for one of my favorite recipes ever, and by golly, it includes blackberries.
If you have some blackberries hanging out in your freezer, please, make some pancakes asap, so you can indulge in this purple waterfall of summery goodness. It is the best, best best, on a frigid January morning, so save some of those berries to make it then, so you can smell and taste a season that seems like a faint, distant memory. To give credit, I adapted this from a Country Living magazine:










                                             Blackberry Maple Syrup


                          2 cups frozen Blackberries
                       
                          1/2 Cup sugar

                          2 Tbsp. cornstarch

                          3 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice

                          2/3 Cup pure maple syrup


                          Combine berries, sugar, and 1 cup of water in a saucepan and cook over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat. In a small bowl, dissolve cornstarch in two Tbsp. of cold water. Whisk the cornstarch mixture into the berries. Put the saucepan back over the heat and bring to a boil, and let boil while whisking for two minutes. Add the lemon juice. Strain the syrup through a sieve to remove the seeds, pressing the berries with a spatula to extract all the liquid. Discard the solids and stir in the maple syrup. Serve piping hot for the yummiest breakfast ever. Makes approx: 2 1/2 Cups










I freeze breakfast portions of this to have on hand and just defrost it in the fridge overnight, then warm it up in the morning. If it sits too long in the fridge it will become gelatinous, but that will go away when heated.










Enjoy the yummy purple kisses you will get from your family. Grace has had purple stained fingers and a sweeter than normal kiss for the past month. Savor these last warm whispers of summer. Fall already has it's fingers tangled in her curly locks, ready to give a good yank. Enjoy it while it lasts!










Oh, and I don't like chocolate very much either.....or, watermelon.
??????!!!!!!!!
          

2 comments:

  1. MMM!! I´m not a bit fan of watermelon, but I do love blackberries, which reminds me - I´d better get out and pick the rest of them before they are GONE!! Lovely photos, as usual, my friend!

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  2. Wow! You are the first person I have met that also doesn't like watermelon! I'm in good company! : )

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