Each month I am going to share with you something that can be foraged and a recipe that you could try!
This month the Blackberries are in abundance!! They are often the first wild fruit we learn to pick and are everywhere, though be sure not to pick too close to major roads if you can or too low on the bushes in case of animals!!
Blackberry plants are thorny, as you will know if you have ever gotten caught up in them, the flowers are white or pinkish with five petals and the fruits start green, turn to red, then to black, which is the colour which we want for harvesting.
One of our favourite recipes to do with our foraged blackberries is Blackberry and Brown Sugar Fingers
You will need:
For the base
- 225g soft butter
- 75g sifted icing sugar
- 225g plain flour
- 50g cornflour
- pinch of salt
- jam (blackberry if you’ve made it but any will do!)
For the topping
- 125g soft butter
- 125g light brown sugar
- the zest of one lemon grated
- 2 large eggs beaten
- 25g self raising flour
- 175g ground almonds
- 200g blackberries
- 25g flaked almonds
- brown sugar for sprinkling
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 180
- Grease and line a 20x30cm brownie tin
- For the base, cream together the butter and icing sugar in a bowl, sift over the cornflour and flour and salt and stir to make a shortbread type dough. Roll out the dough lightly to almost the size of the tin. Put the dough into the tin and press the edges into the tin, prick with a fork here and there and bake for 16 minutes until it is a pale biscuit colour. Remove from the oven and leave it to go cold, then carefully spread the jam over the whole biscuit base right to the edges.
- For the topping, cream together the light brown sugar and butter, add the lemon zest, beat in the eggs, fold in the flour and ground almonds. Dollop the mixture over the base and spread it out evenly. Scatter over the blackberries pushing half of them down into the mixture, sprinkle over a small amount of brown sugar and bake for 10 minutes. Remove the cake from the oven and sprinkle over the flaked almonds. Bake for a further 30 minutes or until it is golden brown and a skewer comes out clean.
- Leave to cool and slice into fingers. (makes approximately 16 in a tin of aforementioned size)
Come over and show us your efforts over on the Facebook page or on Instagram!
What are your favourite blackberry recipes? If any make it home!