The abundance of blackberries this year doesn't seem to be stopping any time soon. Since it has started a couple of weeks ago as you can see in this post, currently it is daily business managing everything that is coming off.
Yeah, a lot of batches of jam have already been made and stored. And also a lot of berries are frozen in the freezer at the moment getting ready for their ultimate breakfast smoothie moment when the time is ripe for it.
But it feels like there are also so many other options with blackberries to explore.
How about making some blackberry ice cream with them? It shouldn't be that difficult right? Or is it?
The start
It all starts with harvesting a decent batch of blackberries as always. 'They' say that you can better harvest in the evening than in the morning because then they should have had more sun. That sounds like bullocks to me. They are just ready when they are ready.
After harvesting doing the usual soak in water a couple of times after harvesting seems like the normal thing to do. You see a lot of creepy crawlies coming out then as well as a lot of dust from outside. I also see things on the interwebz of soaking them in water with baking soda. But aren't you gonna catch the taste then of baking soda? I've never tried.
The next step is tossing them in the blender for a good spin.
Since I wanted to make frozen yoghurt ice cream with the blackberries I tossed in some Greek yoghurt. This puts in balance in 250 grams of blackberries and 400 grams of greek yoghurt. It also needs a squeeze of lemon juice as well as 70 grams of regular sugar. I did a lot less sugar since the blackberries are so sweet already and it wasn't an issue, but this is to your own liking ofcourse.
This looks more like a crime scene than the start of a nice desert but who cares. I also tossed in some terrible looking wild mint from the garden but that doesn't mean a thing for the taste. The taste is awesome.
Again....a good soak in everything that comes from the garden
Making ice cream
Now here it comes. The usage of the ice making machine. I remembered back in the days we used to have one laying around somewhere (I mean literally like 20 years ago) and I went hunting on if this thing was still working.
An ice machine is not really something fancy. It is just a wheel inside that turns an arm and keeping the mixture moving. Because of this a lot of air comes inside and it keep it from becoming an ice brick.
In my memory this had an element in there that would actively cool the ice, but the reality is that there is a cup you put in the freezer beforehand and it is frozen solid and ready to use then.
So the only thing the machine does is keeps the mix moving, and the freezing part is done on the sides of the container.
You just toss in the mixture, turn the wheel on and let it spin.
Do you see the difference on when it is more frozen and has more air in it?
Finishing it off.
After letting it spin for like an hour, it is actually ready. Now the first time I made this I immediately went to eating. The taste was awesome but it also started to melt super fast again.
I tried it a second time (hey don't judge...you can never eat enough ice cream) with after the spinning putting the container in the freezer for half an hour and that was a lot better!
And actually..this is a really nice and not even such a bad desert. Greek yoghurt is your friend in everything if you ask me, and if you reduce the sugar for a bit it ain't even that unhealthy.
It was super cool to find out that there are more options to make with these blackberries apart from making jam out of them.
I wonder what will be next!