Blackberry Banana Ice Cream

I used corn syrup to make ice cream for the first time last month. Now I'm hooked. I'll save the Agave nectar for yogurt ice cream. For ice cream with real cream, I'll use corn syrup from now on.



This is just a slight variation from the banana ice cream. I just added about a cup of frozen blackberries to the food processor and used 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract instead of vanilla bean.


Perfect Summer dessert

Ginger Blackberry Apple Cobbler

I wanted to add more fruit to my diet. The only fruit I have been eating are oranges and those little mandarin oranges. Can't wait for the summer when berries and stone fruit are seasonal again. For now, I'll use frozen fruit and apples. To make it not so boring I added fresh and ground ginger. I worked out pretty well once the initial shock to the spice subsided.



Ingredients

• 4 Granny Smith apples - peeled, cored and sliced


• 1 pound frozen blackberries


• About 2 inch knob of ginger - peeled and chopped


• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour


• 1/4 cup Agave nectar


• 1 egg


• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil


• 3/4 cup plain yogurt


• 1/4 cup brown sugar


• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour


• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder


• 1/4 teaspoon salt


• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar


• 1 teaspoon ground ginger

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.


2. In a large bowl, toss apples, blackberries, chopped ginger, 1 tablespoon flour and Agave nectar together. Pour into a 2.2 Qt. or larger baking dish.


3. Whisk egg, oil, yogurt and brown sugar in a clean bowl until well combined.


4. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Pour into the wet ingredients. Stir until well blended


5. Spoon the batter over the fruit. Combine granulated sugar with ground ginger and sprinkle over the batter.


6. Bake for 35 minutes. Let cool about 10 to 20 minutes before serving.

Wholewheat Blackberry Banana Bread

You are wondering why I only baked wholewheat things in the past few weeks. Truth is I secretly want to eat healthy despite all the temptation around me.

This quick bread is based on pineapple banana bread recipe. I substituted fresh blackberries for canned pineapple. Fresh blackberries in the winter? I know. Eating fruits out of their season is not planet friendly. I don't have excuses. I saw them in Chinatown and I bought them.

I have a lot of success with wholewheat baked goods lately. Maybe my baking karma level is exceptionally high this month. The bread came out moist, not too dense and just sweet enough to pass as breakfast.



Ingredients

• 1/2 cup all purpose flour


• 1 cup wholewheat flour


• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder


• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda


• 1/2 teaspoon salt


• 3 bananas


• 2 eggs


• 1/4 cup extra light tasting olive oil


• 1/4 cup Agave nectar


• 1 1/2 cups fresh blackberries

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a tube pan or a loaf pan with non-stick spray.


2. In a large bowl, combine all purpose flour, wholewheat flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together.


3. In a separate bowl, mash 3 bananas and whisk with eggs, oil and Agave nectar.


4. Pour the wet ingredients over dry ingredients and mix until just wet. Fold in blackberries. Do not over mix.


5. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 30 minutes in a tube pan or 40 minutes in a loaf pan. Let cool 5 to 10 minutes in the pan. Invert onto a cooling rack and let cool completely.

Pear Blackberry Pie

When Hannah was over making maple nutmeg cream tart, she left me extra pie dough. That perfect delicious butter-shortening pie dough. So I made pear and blackberry pie from 2 pears and a bag of frozen blackberries.



The crafty flowery top crust was because I didn't have enough dough to cover the entire pie. The pie came out really pretty but the filling was a little off. Maybe more lemon and/or sugar next time.

Blackberry Cobbler

I was trying to make this award-winning blackberry cobbler recipe from Betty Crocker healthy by substituting a cup of sugar with 1/3 cup of agave nectar, 1/2 cup of all purpose flour with whole wheat flour and added a tablespoon of psyllium husk fiber.



The result? .... Next time I'll just follow the recipe... The fruit part of my cobbler came out very jelly-like - I guess because of the psyllium.

The recipe also put the fruit over the batter but I thought that wouldn't turn out pretty so I put the fruit at the bottom. Now I realize - the batter was supposed to soak up all the juice!

I'm sorry Betty Crocker. I'll do exactly what you say next time...

Blackberry Muffins (with Flax)

I don't know why I have frozen blackberries in my refrigerator. And I don't remember since when. I despise the fruit. It's super tart, too juicy, with weird texture. It was probably on sale.

Anyway, since I have my favourite muffin recipe - I might as well put it to the test with this alien-looking berries. I doubled the sugar because the fruit is super sour. To offset the point lost from increased sugar, I added ground flax seed and reduced oil. And since I used 2 cups of frozen berries - I baked them higher temperature.



Ingredients

• 1 cup all purpose flour


• 1 cup wholewheat flour


• 2 tablespoons ground flax seed


• 1/2 teaspoon salt


• 1 teaspoon baking soda


• 1/4 cup extra light tasting olive oil (or canola oil)


• 2/3 cup sugar


• 2 eggs


• 1 cup non-fat plain yogurt


• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract


• 2 cups frozen blackberries

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line a muffin pan with liners.


2. In a small bowl, combine all purpose flour, wholewheat flour, ground flax, salt and baking soda.


3. In a larger bowl, whisk oil and sugar together. Add eggs, yogurt and vanilla. Whisk until well blended.


4. Stir flour mixture into the wet mixture until just combined.


5. Fold in 1 cup of the berries.


6. Drop the batter into prepared muffin pan. Place the remaining berries on top of the muffins. Bake for 18 minutes.

The muffins still came out really tart. Blechhhh.... Maybe they will taste better in the morning.