Agar Blackberry Jam Recipe.
Seasonal speciality.
Blackberries grow in abundance and can usually be found growing somewhere near to where you live. The blackberry bush thrives on derelict or untouched land and is a surprisingly hardy plant.
August, September and October is when they are in season. Best of all if you discover them on public ground they are not only healthy and tasty but also free food.
Seamus Heaney wrote beautifully about picking blackberries through his poetry and yet it is an activity that is rarely indulged in anymore, which is a real shame as hunting and picking blackberries can be as fun and fulfilling as eating them.
Once you have gathered them and rinsed them thoroughly in clean water, you can then go about creating something special with them.
Make them yummy!
Here are 5 of the best blackberry recipe's I know, they are cheap, easy and delicious, enjoy!
Blackberry Sunday.
Ingredients: Vanilla ice-cream, clotted cream, cooking chocolate, lemon juice, butter and blackberries.
mix 200g of blackberries and a liberal squeeze of lemon juice together until it reaches a sauce Constancy and put to one side. Next heat 100g of cooking chocolate and a knob of butter in a bowl, over a pan of boiling water until fully melted. Place one scoop of vanilla ice-cream in the bottom of a tall glass, then one scoop of clotted cream and then another scoop of vanilla ice-cream. Finish the desert by poring over the melted chocolate and blackberry sauce. Eat immediately and enjoy.
Blackberry and apple crumble.
Ingredients: Blackberries, cooking apples, granulated sugar, butter and plain flour.
Peel and chop 50g of cooking apples, add 50g of blackberries, place in a baking dish and stir in 100g of granulated sugar. In a separate bowl rub together 100g of butter and 200g of plain flour until you have fine crumbs, then stir in 50g of granulated sugar. Sprinkle this mixture of crumbs evenly over the fruit and bake in the oven at 200'c/400'f/gas mark 6 until the fruit is soft. Serve hot or cold, on it's own or with ice-cream, cream or custard.
Blackberry muffins.
Ingredients: Butter, self-raising four, caster sugar, eggs and blackberries.
Place 200g of butter into a bowl and mix with 200g of caster sugar. Beat 2 eggs and add them to the butter and sugar. Sieve and add 200g of self-raising flour mix well. Stir in 200g of blackberries and spoon the mixture equally into 12 large muffin cases and place in a pre-heated oven. Bake for 15-20 minutes at 190'C/375'F/Gas mark 5.
Blackberry jam.
Blackberries, lemon juice, water and granulated sugar.
Place 200g of blackberries, juice of 2 lemons and 1 pint of water into a pan. Stir and simmer on a low heat for an hour or until fruit is soft and pulped. Strain and measure the extract, return to the pan with 500g of granulated sugar to 1 pint of extract. Stir until the sugar has dissolved and boil rapidly, stir regularly until a jell Constancy is formed. Leave to cool, pot and store.
Blackberry and plum compote.
Ingredients: cooking plums, water, port, sugar and blackberries.
Place 450g of sliced plums in a baking dish and add a tablespoon of water. Pour over 150ml of port and cover with 225g of granulated sugar. Bake in the oven at 180'C/350'F/gas mark 4 for 20 minutes. Stir in 450g of blackberries and bake for another 10 minutes. Serve hot or cold with cream.
