Michelle Darmody: Here's how to cook with blackberries

Incorporate blackberries into your baking with these delicious recipes.

Blackberry picking is a nice old tradition that is immortalised in Seamus Heaney’s poem about the inevitable passage of time.
If out picking yourself it is good to aim for the shiniest, blackest berries, ones that come off the stalk with ease.

It is also worth dressing for the occasion. Denim is good at warding off the thorny brambles, and a long sleeve top is very welcome, a dark-coloured one which will not stain too easily.

We were always advised by my grandmother to avoid picking blackberries on a rainy day, or else your jam and bakes would go mouldy. I have always adhered to her advice, and it has served me well.

If you have a particularly successful day of picking you can always freeze some of your bounty. If freezing is not possible jam is the most obvious thing to make. It preserves the late-summer flavour throughout the winter months. If well sealed in a sterilised jar the jam will last for the whole year ahead.

You can also lightly crush the blackberries and stir in with a teaspoon or two of golden caster sugar and eat this with yoghurt or use it as an addition to desserts.

Chocolate tart served with blackberries

recipe by:Michelle Darmody

Delights of blackberry picking... enjoying the bounty

Servings

4

Preparation Time

 2 hours 0 mins

Cooking Time

 17 mins

Total Time

 2 hours 17 mins

Course

 Dessert

Ingredients

• For the pastry case:

• 140g cold butter, cubed

• a pinch of sea salt

• 225g plain flour, sieved

• 60g golden caster sugar

• 1 egg lightly beaten

• For the filling:

• 300mls cream

• 400g dark chocolate broken into small even size pieces

• 70g butter

• 30g blackberries, roughly chopped any extra juice set aside

Method

1. Add the salt to the flour to a large bowl and rub in the butter until it looks like rough breadcrumbs.

2. Stir the sugar into the egg to dissolve it slightly and add this to the flour mixture until it comes together as a dough.

3. Wrap it in baking parchment and place into the fridge to firm up for about two hours.

4. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees, grease and flour the sides of a 10–inch tart case and line the base with parchment.

5. Roll the pastry into a disc just larger than your tart case and gently nudge it in the tin. Bake blind for 12 minutes until the edges are just starting to colour.

6. Remove the beans, or whatever you use to blind bake, and brush the inside of the pastry case with the egg yolk. Place the case back into the oven for another five minutes or until it is golden. Allow to cool completely in the tin.

7. To make the filling heat the cream until it is shivering, just before it boils. Remove from the heat then add in the chocolate and butter and stir until glossy. Stir in the chopped blackberries. Allow to firm up for about five minutes then pour it into your cold tart case.

8. Allow the tart to cool in the fridge and serve with some extra blackberries.

Blackberry pear and ginger bake

recipe by:Michelle Darmody

A delicious bake to make the best use of your blackberry picking.

Servings

4

Preparation Time

 10 mins

Cooking Time

 20 mins

Total Time

 30 mins

Course

 Baking

Ingredients

• 60g cold butter, cubed

• 100g plain flour

• 60g muscovado sugar

• 1 tsp ground ginger

• 30g porridge oats

• For the filling:

• 280g pears, after they have been cored, peeled and chopped

• 120g blackberries

• 10g golden caster sugar

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 180°C.

2. Rub the butter into the flour and sugar until it looks like rough breadcrumbs. Stir in the porridge and ginger.

3. Place the chopped pear and blackberries into an ovenproof dish and toss them in the sugar. Sprinkle the topping over the fruit and very gently press it down.

4. Bake for about twenty minutes until the top is golden and the fruit is bubbling at the sides.