Suzi's Blog
Blackberry Sauce from Jeni
In yesterday’s blog for corn ice cream, I mentioned that its creator, Jeni Bauer, suggested freezing the ice cream in alternating layers: ice cream and blackberry sauce. Instead, we made the sauce on the side and served it on top of the ice cream. Either way, you will consume it all.
This is about as simple a recipe as you can have: berries and sugar. The trick here is to cook it to the required temperature of 220°F. After about 216°, the temperature rise on medium-high heat is slow. Have patience.
When cooled, this sauce will literally bind up. It does not flow, and if you use it as we did, you’ll need to warm it up. Cooking to this temperature with large blackberries releases an enormous amount of pectin. This “sauce” is really a jam. So, if you don’t have ice cream for breakfast, you can have toast with “Blackberry Sauce.”
Jeni suggests this technique for raspberries or black raspberries, too. We’ll be trying that out as the summer goes.
Blackberry Sauce
Yield: 1 ¼ cups
Ingredients:
- 2 cups berries
- 1 cup sugar
Preparation:
Combine the berries and sugar in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
Continue boiling, stirring occasionally, until it reaches 220°F [about 5 to 8 minutes]. Let cool slightly, the force through a sieve to remove the seeds. Or leave a few seeds in there just to prove you made it.
Refrigerate until cold before using.
Notes: when boiling, we used a spoon to mash the berries and make sure they gave up all of their liquid. Large blackberries are strong and will not break down in boiling liquid unless you render assistance.
Source: Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home.
Wildberry Sangria
It’s Father’s Day. And I am posting this late, but this idea will be perfect for any Sunday afternoon from now until the snow flies.
Sangria is one of those terms that can inspire delight or disgust. The bottled “sangrias” you can buy are generally lamentable, distant and very poor cousins to something freshly made with fresh fruits and the right level of sweetness.
The choice of which fruits to add to your wine [red or white] and how much is very much up to you. I like to make my sangria with what is “fresh” and available now. And now is peak berry season.
The trick with a berry sangria is how to extract the flavor. If you are using apples or peaches or lemons or limes or oranges, that is not a issue. You just slice them up. Berries are different. You want the flavor of, say, blackberries, but you do not want mush and you certainly do not want to spend time slicing individual berries — and then there’s the matter of little seeds floating around.
In her book 101 Sangrias and Pitcher Drinks, master mixologist Kim Hassarud has a lovely solution. Put berries and sugar syrup in a sauce pan, and cook until the berries are softened and lightening in color. You don’t want that mush, but you want to have extracted liquid, flavored the sugar syrup and be ready to add dense color to your sangria.
The recipe below is one of several we’ll try this summer. This recipe calls for ½ cup of berry flavored vodka. Lacking that today, I used peach flavored vodka and found the peach flavor definitely contributed to the overall the taste of the drink. Too much? Well, I’m going to get some berry vodka, too. Actually, in blogs to come, we’ll discuss making your very own berry flavored liqueurs.
Wildberry Sangria
Yield: serves about 7
Ingredients:
- ¾ cup each of any three of the following berries: strawberries [hulled and sliced], blueberries, raspberries, blackberries or boysenberries ]total: 2 ¼ cups of berries]
- ¾ cup simple syrup
- 1 bottle of red wine
- ½ cup triple sec [or, better, use a higher quality orange liqueur like Mandarin Napoleon]
- ½ cup berry-flavored vodka
- 1 cup orange juice [fresh squeezed if you can]
Preparation:
In a saucepan, combine all of the berries with simple syrup over low heat. Stir constantly until the berries just being to soften and discolor. Set aside
Combine the remaining ingredients in a large ceramic or glass container. Add the berry mixture [berries and liquid], and stir well. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours. Serve with ice. You may garnish either the pitcher or the individual glasses with berries. In fact, you can freeze berries and substitute those for ice cubes.
Source: 101 Sangrias and Pitcher Drinks by Kim Hassarud
