Blackberry bakewell muffins

Never mind crumble, head to your nearest hedgerows and pick a bag of berries to bake these instead!

Blackberry season is here, and this year I have gone a bit blackberry mad. They appeared in the fields near work in early august, ahead of schedule, proud and ripe as anything. I promptly picked an enormous tubful and stuck them in the freezer at work to save for later on (blackberry cheesecake, seeing as you asked, coming to Kinda Co. soon!) From then on every time I’ve taken the dog for a stroll, or pretty much left the house for any reason, I’ve somehow come back with bags laden and full of purple-staining promise. I even surreptitiously picked some in a pub garden as I couldn’t just leave them there, looking all juicy and pleased with themselves, but it felt like stealing to do it on someone else’s turf. So with a fridge and freezer now heaving with berries it was time to put them to use.

It goes without saying, that first thing we all think of making with blackberries is, altogether now… Crumble! I have no issue with this and hand on heart I love a crumble as much as the next English person. It’s in our custard-loving veins, part of our dessert DNA. But it’s currently 28 degrees outside and as much as I’m personally ready to grab my 100 denier tights and declare hibernation for the next 5 months, we’re simply not quite there yet.

Instead I want all the joy of crumble, in a more weather sympathetic variant, and ideally an individually sized one at that. Initially I had the idea to make an almond and oat cookie with jammy blackberry pieces inside. Alas, no dice. The blackberries made the whole cookie cake-like rather than chewy and the result was bright purple. Not unappealing per se, but definitely not what I was after.

Blackberry cookies, brilliant colour - not so great texture

I decided it probably better to embrace the moisture in the blackberries, rather than fight it, and so chose to try a muffin recipe next. I still wanted the contrast of crunchy and soft like a crumble though, so I opted for the addition of an almond flecked streusel topping. Leaning into the nutty flavour I also added some almond extract to the muffins and with that, my dear esteemed reader, I was on to an absolute blimming winner.

Testing out a gluten free version, with 50/50 blackberries and elderberries

The result was just what I was after. Light, fluffy almond sponge, dotted with juicy sweet blackberries, and a lid of golden, crunchy topping. I don’t often give myself much praise but I will say that I impressed myself with these. Purple cake-cookie failure long forgotten! Honestly sometimes you try and make a recipe for weeks (or months!) and it refuses to work (*ahem* vegan halloumi) and then other times you have an idea, throw a load of ingredients together and from nowhere pull out an absolute corker of a recipe. I’m sure there’s a moral lesson in there about the importance of luck, or patience, or confidence. Or something..

Anyway, please make these. You won’t regret it. If you can’t be bothered with the crumble topping just sprinkle some demerara sugar over the top instead, to give a little crunch.

Blackberry picking tips - from an amateur

I've picked approximately 15KGs of blackberries over the past 3 weeks and therefore I've decided I'm now something of an expert. Another word that springs to mind is addict, as I have become wholly incapable of walking past blackberries without clawing around in my pockets to find a vessel in which to carry them home. The poor dog looking up at me, wondering why her walk has been paused and what on earth I'm putting in one of her biodegradable poo bags (yes it feels weird placing something you want to consume in there but needs must.)

FREE FOOD! Who doesn't love free food?! And they're BERRIES, aka bloody expensive in the shops. They're sweet and juicy and ask a lot less of you to make them delicious, than say, foraging for elderflower (needs faffing about with and usually a bit of a wait) or mushrooms (may or may not kill you). Blackberries can be gobbled up immediately, straight from their thorny vines. Low-maintenance, free fruit - I'm here for it. 

In my extensive blackberry picking travels I have learned that not all blackberries are created equal. The best variety for picking, IMHO, are those with elongated berries made up of lots of druplets (the little bobbles filled with seeds). The amount of druplets seems to vary a lot between blackberry varieties but I’ve observed that you can broadly categorise blackberries into the very technical divisions of: Small Seedys and Big Juicys. If you're lucky enough to find a patch of bramble with Big Juicy’s on then it's worth having a (gentle) rummage around in the leaves to find any extra hidden fruit lurking just out of eye-line.

Of course it's actually great to pick any blackberries that you find, rather than endlessly searching around for a different kind. But even in the field opposite work, which is lined with bramble bushes, there are very clearly multiple different varieties growing, based on the size and shape of the blackberries you can pick. So if you're interested, see if you can spot any different types growing, and which ones you prefer to eat.

Ripe or not? 

The question of how ripe a berry to pick largely depends on what you'd like to use them for and how you'll be storing them. The softer the berry the sweeter, but also the quicker they'll turn to mouldy mush. If you're going to freeze them, then it’s not such an issue - go for the softest ones. If you'd like the blackberries to hold their shape then the juicy, falling apart, ever-so-ripe ones won't hold up, you’re better off going for the slightly firmer ones. If it falls apart when you pick it, leave it for the birds and the bugs. If you're planning to use them in something that you'll be adding a lot of sugar too, such as a jam or a cheung, then those firm little beauties will be fine. If you can't twist them off the branch then they're not ready yet, so let those ones live a little longer in the sunshine. 

Blackberry bakewell muffins

Ingredients:

• 150ml soy milk

• 2 tsp apple cider vinegar

• 1 tsp almond extract

• 165g plain flour

• 120g granulated sugar

• pinch of salt

• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder

• 90g vegan butter, melted

• 200g blackberries, or a mixture of blackberries and elderberries

For the crumble topping (optional, but recommended!):

• 80g plain flour

• 40g granulated sugar

• 35g flaked almonds, crushed up a bit

• pinch of salt

• 50g vegan butter, melted

• 1/2 tsp almond extract

• 2 tbsp demerara sugar

Method:

1. Pre-heat your oven to 180°C fan/400°F/gas mark 6 and line a baking tin with 12 muffin cases.

2. First make the crumble topping - if you’re using it. Add the flour, salt, granulated sugar and flaked almonds to a small bowl. Pour over the melted butter and almond extract and roughly combine together with a fork until there is no dry flour showing and the mixture is a lumpy, crumble consistency. Put to one side.

3. Next you can make your muffin batter. Measure out the soy milk into a jug, stir in the cider vinegar and leave to thicken and curdle.

4. Meanwhile measure out the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder into a bowl and mix together until well incorporated, I use a whisk to do this quickly and remove any lumps at the same time.

5. Add the almond extract and melted butter to the soy milk mixture and stir well.

6. Pour the soy milk mixture into the dry ingredients and gently mix the two together. If it looks lumpy you’re on the right track! Try not to over-mix, just make sure there aren’t any pockets of dry mixture left. Stir through the blackberries.

7. Scoop the batter into the cases, I overfilled and ended up with 11 decently sized muffins. If you’d prefer bigger American sized muffins you could make 10 and portion the batter accordingly.

8. Using your hands sprinkle over the crumble mixture on top of the muffins.

9. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes. They should be risen and golden on top.

10. Leave to cool slightly before munching.

Notes:

• These muffins are best eaten still warm from the oven, but will last a few days. Store them in the fridge if you’re somewhere warm, as the high moisture content in the berries won’t like a warm kitchen (read: mould.)

• If the crumble topping goes soft you can pop them back in the oven for a few minutes to crisp up before eating.

• To make them gluten free simply sub out the plain flour for a GF blend. I used Doves Farm and found I needed another 30g of flour in the muffin batter as it came out very thin. I also added in 15g ground flax to help with moisture but you could leave this out.

• You could use any other fresh berries (raspberries, blueberries, elderberries etc) and you could also use frozen berries if you don’t have any fresh ones to hand.

If you have any blackberry picking , or baking, tips please let me know - I’d love to hear! What do you like to make with your blackberries?