Recipe: NW Summer Cobbler

I know its summer when the salmonberries are ripe, peaches and cherries are in the supermarkets and I'm just about out of blackberries in my freezer (from last year's picking)!

So, tonight, I made up a recipe to celebrate the start of summer! I used salmonberries Chad and I picked last weekend :)

 Chad picking away at our favorite spot on Clear Creek Trail. You can see two orange berries just above his hand.

 

 These were the prettiest ones we picked!!

NW Summer Cobbler

• 2 peaches, pitted and cut into 1/2-inch chunks
• 1 cup cherries (any kind), pitted and cut in half
• 1 cup blackberries
• 1 cup salmonberries
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce, divided
• a nice squirt of fresh lemon or lime juice
• 2 tbls granulated sugar or splenda (more if you like sweeter deserts)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats (I used old fashion)
• dash of salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 2 tbls cold butter, cut up

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9x9 glass pan. Mix together fruit, 1/3 the applesauce, lemon/lime juice, sugar and corn starch. (Don't transfer to pan yet)

Mix together flour, brown sugar, oats, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. With fingers squish the butter into the dry mixture until its just part of the mixture maybe like corn meal). Then start scooping in the apple sauce into the dry mixture. After each scoop, mix the dry stuff, and repeat until its moist, sticky, but still crumbly. (At this point, pour the leftover apple sauce into the fruit and stir)

Pour fruit mixture into the prepared pan. Sprinkle the oat mixture over the top.

Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until the top is happy brown and the fruit is bubbling.

Serve with whip cream or ice cream (OR BOTH!!)

Delicious! Really, you could use just about any fruit in this crisp/cobbler. I almost threw in some rhubarb :)

Salmonberry Jellam (Jelly/Jam)

Figured I'd post this recipe - the rest of the websites that have one are really quite cryptic.

The day I made this, I used half raspberries, half salmonberries, I had three reasons for this. One, salmonberries have very little delicious flavor of their own. They don't taste bad! They just don't have MUCH taste at all. Two, salmonberry seeds have an astringent quality to them, kind of a sour tang that leaves the back of your tongue a bit tingly - so I wanted to remove a bunch of them. Which brings us to reason three... by removing a bunch of the seeds, I just didn't have enough pulp with the salmonberries alone...

Also, something great about the following recipe, is that I made it scalable. If you have more berries just scale the recipe up! Also, I think using wild blackberries would be a delicious addition!

Salmonberry Jellam

* 2 cups mixed salmonberries & raspberries (1 cup puree/juice)
* 1.4 cups sugar
* 1 tbls pectin



Recipe

1) Blend half of your berries. Smush puree through a strainer, discard seeds (try doing this to most of the salmonberries). Mush up the other berries - leaving a bit chunky (this combo makes it a Jellam vs a jelly or jam). Mix everything together to get 1 cup puree. Measure out sugar into a bowl and set aside - its going to look like a TON of sugar. Remember, these berrys aren't really sweet on their own and the sugar is the preservative in this recipe.

2) In a small pot, mix berries with pectin (I use Sure-Jell). Stirring frequently, bring to a full boil over medium high heat (till it boils regardless of how much you stir). Mix in sugar and stir vigorously till combined. Bring to a boil again, boil for EXACTLY ONE MINUTE.

3) Immediately, remove from heat and pour into sterilized jars. Cover with 2 part lids. Boil in water bath (not sitting on bottom of pot and covered by at least an inch of water) for 10 minutes.

4) Remove from bath, listen for popping lids! Enjoy!

Makes about 2 cups worth. The not full one to the left, I didn't put in the waterbath, just let it cool on the counter, then put it in the fridge for immediate consumption!