Blackberry Coffee Cake

Extended Shelf Life for: Blackberries

 We're still flying high on the recent salvaging of blackberries and every time I pull out a bag from the freezer, my heart rejoices and my taste buds wait in anticipation.

While I love berry dishes and cooking berry filled pies, cobblers or smoothies, we don't often spend money on fresh berries...because, well, we don't often spend money on any fresh produce :)

But berries only come around so often and when they do, it truly is a treat, so waking up a few mornings to enjoy this Blackberry Coffee Cake has definitely put me on cloud nine!

Ingredients/Directions:
From Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook

In a medium saucepan combine 1 1/2-2 cups fresh or frozen Blackberries and 1/4 cup Water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer about 5 minutes until fruit is tender. Combine 1/4 cup Sugar and 2 Tbsp. Cornstarch and stir into fruit. Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture is thickened and bubbly. Cook and stir an additional 2 minutes, then set aside.

Preheat oven to 350 F. In a medium bowl combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cups Sugar, 1/2 tsp. Baking Powder and 1/4 tsp. Baking Soda. Cut in 1/4 cup Butter until mixture is coarse. Make a well in the center, set aside.

In a small bowl combine 1 beaten Egg, 1/2 cup Buttermilk and 1/2 tsp. Vanilla. Add this mixture, all at once, to the flour mixture. Stir until just moistened, batter should be lumpy.

Spread half of the batter in an un-greased square baking pan. Spread fruit filling on top and drop remaining batter in small mounds on top of fruit filling.

In another small bowl, stir together 1/4 cup Flour and 1/4 Cup Sugar. Cut in 2 Tbsp. Butter until misture is coarse, sprinkle over coffee cake.

Bake for 40-45 minutes until golden. Cool slightly, serve warm.

Blackberry Cobbler

Extended Shelf life for: Blackberries

Normally, we dive a lot of potatoes and onions and a few other random produce items. Rarely we dive blackberries. Very rarely we dive an entire flat of blackberries. And even more rarely do we dive such an immense amount of berries and find that they are all incredibly edible! Would you believe that out of all these pints of blackberries I only threw two away? Unbelievable!

Of course, in these moments, my heart is truly torn: there's the heart that is thrilled to be cooking, chefing and crafting with blackberries and then there's the part of my heart that's devastated that I live in a society that can justify waste to this degree.

But of course, when life hands you blackberries you do a little victory dance and hit up the world-wide-web to find the best there is in Blackberry Cobbler's and it's not long before you find yourself on the doorstep of The Pioneer Woman.

The recipe I used is exactly the recipe posted by The Pioneer Woman (because who changes one of her recipes? Seriously?

But of course, I'll type it out in that special way I have ;)

Ingredients/Directions:

Melt 1 stick of butter. In a mixing bowl, stir together 1 cup Sugar and 1 cup Self-Rising Flour (make your own by adding 1 1/2 tsp. Baking Powder and 1/2 tsp. Salt). Slowly whisk in 1 cup milk. Add melted butter and whisk together.

Butter a baking dish.

Wash and pat dry 1 pint (2 cups of Blackberries). Pour batter into buttered dish, drop berries on top, sprinkle up to 1/4 cup additional sugar on top. Bake for 1 hour at 350 until golden and bubbly. Enjoy as is or with Vanilla Ice Cream (could you believe we dived ice cream the same week as blackberries! what luck, eh?)

Blackberry-Orange Biscuit Rolls

Extended Shelf Life for: Blackberries, Orange

Sometimes, brilliant ideas are spawned from a dumpster arrival of blackberries and an orange already on the shelf, waiting to be used. And sometimes, those brilliant ideas are compounded by the fact that one of your favorite, most spectacular friends has a birthday the next day.

So you dream and ponder and before you know it your pulling Blackberry-Orange Biscuits Rolls out of the oven, drizzling them with a fine orange glaze and praising the Lord for creativity, dumpster abundance and birthdays!

Ingredients/Directions:

Preheat oven to 450 Fahrenheit.

In a bowl stir together 2 cups All Purpose Flour, 1 Tbsp. Sugar, 2 tsp. Baking Powder, 1 tsp. Orange Zest, 1/4 tsp. Salt and 1/4 tsp. Baking Soda. Cut in 1/2 cup Butter with a pastry blender until mixture is coarse and crumbly.

Make a well in center dry mix and add 6 oz. of Yogurt and 1 Tbsp. Milk, mix with a fork until just moistened.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and kneed 10-12 strokes until dough is smooth. Pat or roll dough out to 1/4 - 1/2 inch thick.

In a small bowl, sprinkle a handful or 1/2 cup of Blackberries with Sugar and mash with a fork. Sprinkle with 1-2 tsp. of Cornstarch and mix again.

Spread Blackberry mixture onto biscuit dough. Carefully roll dough as you would for cinnamon rolls.

Carefully slice the biscuit log and create biscuits that about 1/2 inch thick. Place on a lightly greased baking sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes until dough is golden brown.

For the Glaze:

In a small bowl, combine 3/4 cups Powdered Sugar with 1 tsp. Orange Zest and 3-4 tsp. of Orange Juice until you reach glazing consistency.