Blackberry Crisp

I love wild blackberries. We had some in the very back of our 1/2 acre property while I was growing up. I was always back there, munching on those things. Best part of late summer. So, I was happy to see that there were lots of blackberries when we were looking to buy our current place in 2000. Actually, there were too many blackberry bushes. The previous owners had let them grow along the creek, between the creek and the lawn. They had horses that they let roam the yard to graze, and they wanted to keep them from going down to the creek. Fortunately, the blackberries weren't that hard to get rid of. Every so often, a vine will pop up, however, and we have to nip it in the bud. ;-)

What is great, is the section of land between the highway and our driveway, which all run parallel to each other. It's a slope probably about 15 feet in width, and maybe 100 feet in length (I'm horrible at guessing distances). About half of it is covered in blackberries. It keeps them nicely in their spot, they can't roam.

We don't even water them, which I know we should because we would get much better blackberries. This year, the long cool wet spring seemed to make them very happy, and we had a lot of good blackberries.

I got it into my head that I should gather a bunch, and make a blackberry crisp. I love crisps, and I love baking. But I think I've only baked once or twice in the past few years, because of my health. But I bit the bullet and Kaelan and I went out and picked and picked and picked. And then picked some more, because there didn't seem to be enough when I put it in the pan.

I took a couple good looking recipes from the internet, and picked what I liked from them and I'm very happy with how it turned out. I have problems with eating crisps in general, as the topping doesn't ever seem to be good enough. It's either too dry, or too bland, or something.  My standards are too high, because I love crisps SO MUCH.  But this one was just right. And amazingly enough, I barely noticed the blackberry seeds in the crisp.

Unfortunately, I'm writing this post much later, so I don't quite remember what my recipe turned out to be. I was going to write it down immediately, but of course I didn't. I'm going to try to put it in this post, to the best of my recollection.

Blackberry Crisp (or Crumble)

Filling:

8 cups fresh blackberries
1/4 to 1/2 cups sugar (depending on the sweetness of the blackberries)
2 TB cornstarch
2 TB flour

Topping: (this is where it gets a bit fuzzy, things can be adjusted as you like)

3/4 C whole wheat flour
3/4 C all purpose flour
1 1/2 (generous) old fashioned rolled oats
1 C Brown Sugar
1 tsp (generous) cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
pinch of cloves
1 tsp powdered vanilla
1/2 C (1 stick) butter

Preheat oven to 375.

For the filling:

Place the blackberries in a large bowl. In a small bowl, mix the sugar, flour, and cornstarch together. Then, pour over the blackberries, and gently combine with a spatula until blackberries are coated.

Spray a 13X9 pan with cooking spray, and pour berry mixture into pan. Place the pan in the oven for 20 minutes.

Topping:

While the blackberries are cooking in the oven, cut the butter into 1/2 inch cubes. In a medium bowl, add the flours, oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, vanilla and butter. Stir together with your fingers, until the mixture is crumbly.

After 20 minutes, take the blackberries out of the oven. Evenly sprinkle the topping over the berry mixture.

Return the pan into the oven for 30 minutes, or until the topping is a golden brown, and the berry mixture is bubbly.