Blackberry Cobbler

Dear Summertime,

We welcome you with open arms.
Please tell your friend Winter, that she is no longer welcome.
We are kindly requesting no more snow storms in April.
Thanks for listening to our plea.

Love,
Residents of Cache Valley, Utah

Summer really is just around the corner! (I think...)

Garden preparations are starting and farmer's markets will soon be in season!

Take advantage of the locally grown produce near you during the summer months! Extend the wonderful tasting produce through the winter months by freezing some of your bounty.

Fruits are extremely easy to freeze! They maintain their taste and texture quite well.

There are few ways your can freeze fruits...

• Syrup Pack: Make a simple syrup and pack fruit in syrup. It takes about 2/3 cup syrup for 1 pint of fruit. Syrup can vary from 20%-60% sugar. Amounts can be found through USU Extension.
• Notes: The syrup packed fruit can be used for dessert, but obviously is higher in sugar. Other packing methods work well for desserts and do not add sugar!
• Sugar Pack: Sprinkle fruit with sugar, stir and let sit until the juices are drawn out.
• Notes: The sugar pack method is lower in sugar than the syrup pack, but still is adding some refined sugar to fruit.
• Unsweetened Pack: Pack fruit in desired containers without adding anything.
• Notes: The unsweetened pack method is obviously doesn't have any refined sugar added to it! When the fruit freezes all packed into a container, it will freeze into a big clump.
• Tray Pack: Fruit can be frozen in a single layer on a tray to maintain individual pieces. Once frozen, they can transferred to a bag and be removed invidiually as needed.
• Notes: This is the most recommended method! No added sugar, and fruit stays pretty.

Some fruits need some tender-love and care (TLC) before freezing so that they don't go "dark" in the process, like apples.  Steaming, ascorbic acid and citric acid can be used prevent the dreaded darkness.

But blackberries, like in the blackberry cobbler recipe below, do not need extra TLC before freezing. They can be frozen in a syrup pack, sugar pack, unsweetened pack and tray pack. We recommend the tray pack (that's what we used for our recipe!).

Blackberry Cobbler*
Yield: 9 servings.

Ingredients:

Berry mixture:

4 cups blackberries, rinsed clean

1/2 cup sugar (less or more to taste, depends on how sweet the berries are and how sweet you would like your cobbler to be)

1 teaspoon lemon zest

1 Tbsp lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1 1/2 Tbsp cornstarch (for thickening, can use instant tapioca instead)

Cobbler topping:

3 Tbsp sugar

1 cup all purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 Tbsp butter

1/4 cup milk

1 egg, lightly beaten

Directions:

1. Place berries, sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest, cinnamon, and cornstarch in a 9x9 casserole dish. Stir to coat the berries evenly with the sugar. Let sit for 30 minutes.
2.  Preheat oven to 350°F. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together 3 tablespoons of sugar, the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cut the butter in with a pastry blender or fork (or even your fingers) until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Use a wooden spoon to stir in the egg and milk until the batter is just moistened.
3. Taking large spoonfuls, drop the batter mixture over the berries. Place in the oven and bake for 30 minutes or until the berry mixture is bubbly and the topping is nicely browned.
4. Great served with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

*Recipe from simplyrecipes.com