[Duckduckgoose]

Hi everyone, I have a huge amount of blackberries and brambles and would like your help with interesting ways to use them.
Would love to see what you come up with.
Thanks :-)

[Cosmore]

Along with the usual Blackberry jam, preserve, jelly, blackberry and apple pie/crumble, having some fresh with cream/ice cream, freezing some for later etc., you could make some Blackberry wine - (a sparking version is great), or add some brandy to the wine for Blackberry Brandy, Blackberry and apple sauce for Pork, I'm sure others will have some novel ideas!

[Backinwellies]

Freeze as you pick then defrost as you use .......... open frozen then bagged up you can just defrost right amount for the recipes which are winging your (and my!) way  ....... 

[Duckduckgoose]

Thanks Linda and Cosmore. I will freeze them. I've just found a recipie for blackberry liqueur which sounds yummy!

I'd love to make wine but have never done it before. Does anyone have an idiot proof recipie? 

[Bramblecot]

Blackberry upside-down cake (same method as pineapple u-d cake).  Approx 10 oz blackberries for a 10 inch round cake tin.    .

[cloddopper]

Thanks Linda and Cosmore. I will freeze them. I've just found a recipie for blackberry liqueur which sounds yummy!

I'd love to make wine but have never done it before. Does anyone have an idiot proof recipie? 

Blackberry wine is a bit hit & miss , quite often you can get a musty after taste  caused by the wild yeasts in the fruit .
A way I've often used to overcome this problem is to make a lot of blackberry jam & then use the jam as the fruit & sugar source .  The high  jam boiling temps will kill the unwanted yeasts,  the extra sugar in the fruit base  can give you an ideal must specific gravity .
 The beauty of this jam idea is that you can now make blackberry wine at anytime of the year ,especially the next year when ambient temps are nice and fermenting warm , but there are no  blackberries to be found.

 You can also use the jam idea to make the wine and keep feeding it with more sugar to get the elixir which tastes & looks very similar to the German's Schwartz Katz ( black cat ) .

Adding a half bottle of quality brandy , vodka or white rum as the fortifying factor & still adding more sugar to make it to a 60 % proof or more syrupy  cheek warming liqueur strength . When you can't dissolve any more sugar crystals in the liquid even after shaking it every day for 10 days it's finished and needs to be stored for a few months to let the flavours develop a bit more . you can decant it into a different bottle to leave the un dissolved sugar behind or you can leave then in the original bottle

Just don't blame me when you become a diabetic from drinking this very very high sugar / high calorie drink a single shot at a time every now & then  ... not half a pint in one night like my pal did.

[Duckduckgoose]

Thanks Cloddopper, will have lloads of jam so can definitely give that a try. Sounds like potent stuff!

[cloddopper]

A light golden brown blackberry and apple crumble with a hint of cloves or cinnamon is a winner in this household , especially if accompanied with either double cream or soft scoop ice cream .

[Cosmore]

I never had any problems with wild yeasts spoiling the Blackberry wine - I used to wash the berries before using.
Once I had made more wine than I could reasonably store/use in a year, so I gave some to a polish friend of mine. Some time later he invited me round to try some wines he had made. After tasting a few delicious samples, he, with a mischevious look on his face, said now try this. He produced a shot glass into which he poured some clear liquid. 'Try that', he said. Well I took one sip - it nearly 'blew my hat off'! I looked quizzically at him as he laughed and said 'that's your blackberry wine'! He then showed me what he'd done - he'd illicitly made a still using an old kettle, some copper pipe and odds and ends. He had distilled my wine into a clear spirit - what the proof was goodness only knows, it was like rocket fuel but it tasted great, taken in small sips!
I'm not suggesting anyone do anything illegal though........

[waterbuffalofarmer]

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/blackberry

Try this

[Jukes Mum]

I went out blackberry picking yesterday. I can home with 7!!! (I ate 1  )
Where are all the blackberries??

[Duckduckgoose]

We're in Aberdeenshire and have loads. I'm constantly picking them and freezing/ using them. Where are you Jukes Mum? :-)

[Jukes Mum]

North Yorkshire. We usually pick way too many, but haven't found any yet this year (well, 7!)

[Backinwellies]

I went out blackberry picking yesterday. I can home with 7!!! (I ate 1  )
Where are all the blackberries??

HERE!

[Jukes Mum]

on my way