Oh, yes...the time has come....
Washington's own native trailing blackberries (Rubus ursinus) are ripe ripe ripe for the picking! Woot.
Also known as devil's shoelace, this plant makes you work for its little juicy gems of yum. The best patches that I've found are in old clearcuts, where walking around brings out your natural clumsy. The devil's shoelace is great at tripping you while camouflaging the giant mountain beaver hole that you're about to stumble into. Totally worth it!
Last weekend, Justin and I ventured to the most bountiful trailing blackberry spot that I've ever seen. In about an hour, we stained our hands, lips, and clothes a satisfying shade of red and collected about a gallon of berries. Since they take a long time to collect, we didn't want to blow them all in one pie--though that would have been quite joyfully glutenous--so, we decided on something even better-- Handpies!
Handpies. Not only do they travel well--we took a few up to Hurricane Ridge to devour while we checked out the stars--but they extend the supply of berries. I made about 12 pies and used only 3 cups of berries. We had many left to eat naked (the berries, of course), with yogurt, or tossed in smoothies.
Happy berry season, folks!
2 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 TBS sugar
1 c (2 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
1/4 to 1/2 c ice water
In a bowl, combine flour and salt with a fork. Add butter, and mix it by smashing the butter and flour between your finger tips until mixture resembles coarse crumbs with some larger pieces remaining.
Add water a tablespoon at a time until the dough holds together without feeling sticky.
Turn out dough onto a clean work surface. Divide in half, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate at least 1 hour or overnight.
3 cups of trailing blackberries (or other seasonal fruit)
1/4 c. sugar
1 TBS. arrowroot powder or cornstarch
Mix together with a fork.
1 egg, beaten
sugar in the raw
Set oven to 425°F.
On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the first ball of dough to about 1/4-inch-thick. Using a 4 to 5-inch cookie cutter, cut into rounds and transfer to a greased baking sheet.
Place about 1.5 TBS of blackberry mixture onto one-half of each round. Lightly brush egg around the edge of the covered half of each round. Fold remaining dough over to create a half moon. Gently press edges together to seal. Brush the tops of each pie with egg. Slash the top of each pie to make vents for cooking berries. Sprinkle with sugar in the raw or another coarse sugar.
Repeat this process with second half of dough and remaining filling on second baking sheet.
Bake until golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes. Transfer pies to a wire rack to cool slightly before serving. Or let cool completely, and store in an airtight container at room temperature up to 4 days.
Do it! Don't delay!
Mike and I stumbled through two devil's shoelace patches along the hedgerows in our neighborhood tonight and came back not only with purple-stained fingers, but our lips were red from the abundant thimble berries, too...love those berries. Your hand-pies are inspirational...
ReplyDeletereminds me of when i made fruit-filling empanadas. yum!
ReplyDelete