Blackberries- 4 ways in 2 days!

My hubby drives a truck from here in NW Arkansas to around Little Rock and back, most every day. What always amazes me is that he can drive from one season into another. We can still be in the hard grip of winter and he will come home to tell me about forsythia bushes blooming and daffodils covering hills.

Since summer comes sooner and hotter down there than our little corner of the Ozarks, my hubby brings back fruits that we are only thinking of. Last week it was blackberries. My blackberries are still hard nubs. The berries he brought home were cultivated and some were as big as my thumb. My mind started whirring. Hubby looked at the two small bags and said, "A cobbler would be nice. And I wonder what blackberry ice cream would be like?"

Drat. I had a million flights of fancy looking at those berries, but he did bring them to me, so I figured I ought to honor his wishes. 

I found a Blackberry Ice Cream recipe that sounded good from William Sonoma. Some of the ones I saw were just odd, like calling for just one egg yolk, or for water. This one was a good old custard recipe with lots of cream and 4 egg yolks. It cooked up delicious. 

Then I pureed the blackberries with sugar and strained them. Yum! Then I chilled both and set them to churning.

Next I made a two crust cobbler, which is the kind my husband likes. I would have loved to tumble the berries into the rich batter  that my kinfolk call cobbler. If you want to see it go to Blackberry Peach Cobbler or even Rose Strawberry Cobbler.

Then I wickedly decided to use some of the berries just for me! I had a recipe for Blackberry Buttermilk Sorbet that I had been wanting to try since last summer. It couldn't be simpler. Just put 4 cups of blackberries, 2 cups of buttermilk, and 2 cups of sugar in the blender and puree. 

Strain out the seeds and pour into a shallow container. Freeze for one hour, then stir the freezing bits into the rest. Freeze an hour, stir again. By the third hour it was perfect, and such a dark, shiny purple it looked like tar. I could imagine prehistoric animals falling into a pit of it and going happily to their doom as they gulped big bites of it on the way down.

And the taste! It was as smooth and creamy as anything you would hope to buy. The berry flavor was front and center with the perfect amount of sugar, while the buttermilk gave a little tang at the end. It made me sigh I was so happy! However, I had fourthed the recipe so as not to hog too many berries, and there was just a tiny little bit. So the sorbet was hidden away for my own personal use.... (evil laughter).  Now I am wondering if every fruit would be this amazing made with this simple recipe. I'm telling you, it is like velvet in your mouth!
(Note- if you try it and don't care for the subtle tang of the buttermilk, I bet it would work fine with milk or cream.)

I had the kids and mom and dad over for sampling after supper. They all said they liked the cobbler and ice cream. (And, yes, I did give tiny spoonful tastes of the sorbet! I'm not a complete beast.) I did not like either of the other desserts. There were so many huge seeds in the cobbler that I felt like I had been eating rocks. 

And the ice cream. What a waste of berries. Everyone agreed, it didn't taste like vanilla, but it didn't taste like blackberries. And with two cups of straight puree! But they all said it tasted good. I was irate. If it doesn't taste like blackberries why even make it? Did the people who made the recipe think it tasted like berries? Grrr.

On a happier note, I had a little over a cup of berries left, and the next day I tried again. This time I used a recipe from the blog, A Cookie Named Desire, called Blackberry Lime Cupcakes . Doesn't that sound nice? Why, yes, it does.  

Of course, I changed things all along. I can't help it. First off you make a blackberry jelly of sorts. She didn't strain the seeds! After the cobbler fiasco I certainly strained the seeds, so mine was more a blackberry syrup. So far, so good.

I made her cake batter, which I liked the sound of. However, it was supposed to be lime flavored, yet it only had zest in it. I have had the problem of vanilla overpowering whatever delicate taste was supposed to be in a dish. So I changed the one and a half teaspoon of vanilla to lime juice. Huge difference! 

Then she said to swirl a spoonful of the blackberry syrup into the batter. I only swirled it into the center of each cake to make a "heart" of blackberry. Last change on the cakes- she said to cook for 17-20 minutes. I baked for 14 and they were perfectly done. If I had cooked longer they would have been coarse and dry. That is why I rarely ever make cupcakes.

So I had lovely looking and smelling little cakes. On to the frosting. I used her recipe, but it seemed like so much sugar that I left out 1/2 cup. After trying it, I would leave out a whole cup the next time, or simply add the lime to my own buttercream recipe. Again there was only zest, so I substituted 5 tsp of lime juice for the 1 Tbsp of cream in her recipe. Why such a weird measurement? I kept adding it till I could taste it. The frosting was so toothcrackingly sweet that it took that much. But I have to admit the bright green shreds of zest made me smile.

I frosted the cupcakes in a attempt to look all lovely like hers. But it tuned out to be way more frosting than I like on my cake, all the family agreed. The blackberry drizzle was insanely good, but if you knocked the top off the frosting so you could save your fillings,  you lost the drizzle. 

So, yet another thing I would do differently the next time. Yes, I said next time! It is such a great combination of flavors, with very moist cake, that I think I will actually try it again with all the modifications. Only maybe as little baby cakes, instead of cupcakes. I don't know where the cupcake aversion comes from.

I guess that two good desserts out of four isn't so bad. Now I want the hubby to bring me more berries. I'm having a serious craving for blackberry buttermilk sorbet that could possibly go on all summer long!