Beating the bushes

My friend Amanda and I don’t get to see each other nearly as often as we would like to, but yesterday I hopped on my bike (well, her bike actually) and pedaled away towards Woodinville where she lives with her husband and adorable little munchkin. Easy enough, right? Absolutely! The only reason I don’t do it all the time is because her house is about 40 km away from mine. Adding a few extra kilometers due to mishaps in the Woodinville maze, I ended up cycling 85 km yesterday; a respectable distance if I might say so myself. (And I might, because this is my blog, thankyouverymuch.) 

Besides catching up on all the gossip whilst noshing on a lovely lunch, another objective of mine was to find some ripe blackberries along the bike trail. I had promised someone that I would make them a blackberry crumble pie later that day and would not like to disappoint. There were no reasons to worry, however; fate was smiling upon me and the brambles that lined my path were heavy with dark, juicy berries, warm from the beaming sunlight. The two containers I’d brought were soon overflowing and I silently cursed myself for not choosing bigger buckets. In all fairness though, it would’ve been quite the challenge to bring back a bigger harvest on my bike.

Still, my quota was far from filled and this morning I therefore decided to check out the blackberry bushes by Green Lake where I gathered some sweet fruits last year. This time I put four plastic boxes in my backpack to ensure that I would keep myself busy for a while.

One hour later:

‘Twas a good harvest.

Yesterday’s pie was a triumph as well, although I had to improvise a little with what I happened to have in my pantry, all in the spirit of Cajsa Warg. Starting with a recipe from Arla, this is what I cooked up:

Blackberry-nectarine crumble pie

 

  

Filling

• 3 nectarines
• 250 g (8.8 oz) blackberries
• 0.5 dl (0.2 cups) granulated sugar
• 1 tbsp cornstarch

 

Crumble

• 0.75 dl (0.3 cups) granulated sugar
• 1.5 dl (0.6 cups) rye flakes
• 1 dl (0.4 cups) unbleached white flour
• 125 g (4.4 oz) vegan buttery sticks

The nectarines were thinly sliced and put in the bottom of a buttered, round baking dish. I filled up with berries and covered them with sugar and cornstarch mixed together. Apparently, I was out of rolled oats which I would normally use for the crumble, but rye flakes worked perfectly fine as a substitute. The flakes were mixed with flour and sugar, and crumbles were properly crumbled after adding room tempered butter to the bowl, paws getting nice and greasy. (This is a hands-on business; there’s no messing around with spoons or silly tools.) The doughy clumps were finally distributed over the fruit and the pie was baked in the middle of the oven for 20 minutes at 225°C (440°F). The result was served warm, nicely accompanied by a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream. A victory of juiciness! 

Next time I might add a little bit of fresh ginger to the fruits, which I believe would add very nicely to the sweetness. All in all, it was an excellent berry adventure, well worth looking like I’ve been wrestling a pride of lions.

(For those of you who don’t know: blackberry brambles are the most viciously thorned organisms out there. Not for sissies!)