Blackberry and Goat Cheese Bars

I love seeing all the fresh berries at the market each weekend and have enjoyed baking with blackberries lately, including the peach and blackberry tart I recently made. I could just sit and eat a whole bowl of berries or, better yet, cover them in custard and eat them.

These bars consisted of a shortbread crust, a layer of blackberry jam, and then the fresh berries drenched in a custard made with cream cheese and goat cheese.  I think they're supposed to be for dessert, but they were breakfast for my team meeting one morning. They weren't complaining.

Blackberries are so pretty. Last year, I made little meringue shells for them.

And, then the downpouring of custard.  And, not just any custard, but custard with goat cheese, fresh lemon juice and fresh lemon zest.

They're so good together.

The finished product...for dessert or breakfast.

Recipe for Blackberry and Goat Cheese Bars

Adapted from a recipe by Scott Peacock in BHG

Ingredients

 

1C. unsalted butter (2 sticks) cut into 1-inch chunks

1/4 C. packed light brown sugar 

1/2 t. salt

2 C. unbleached all-purpose flour

Softened butter (for brushing sides of foil)

1 C. blackberry jam or preserves

1 pint (2 cups) fresh blackberries

1/2 - 8-oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened

4 oz. goat cheese

1/2 C. granulated sugar

1 T. unbleached all-purpose flour

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

2 T. finely shredded lemon zest

2 T. freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/2 t. pure vanilla

 

Directions

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 13x9x2-inch baking pan with a 24-inch-long sheet of aluminum foil, leaving extra foil extending over ends (use these later to lift bars from pan); set aside. In a large bowl beat the butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed until it just begins to blend and soften slightly, about 30 seconds. Add brown sugar and salt, beat on low speed until incorporated, 30 seconds to 1 minute. With mixer off, add the 2 cups flour. Beat on low speed until flour is incorporated. Increase speed to medium, mix until ingredients form an even, cohesive dough.
Break dough into small chunks and distribute in prepared pan; with your fingers press dough into an even layer. Bake 20 minutes or until dough has begun to puff and is just set. Cool on wire rack 5 minutes.
Lightly brush exposed sides of foil with softened butter to keep filling from sticking. Spread jam evenly over crust.
Sprinkle evenly with blackberries.
With a lemon zester, remove peel from lemon, making sure to avoid bitter white pith.
In a large bowl beat cream cheese and goat cheese with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Mix in granulated sugar and 1 tablespoon flour until blended. With mixer running, add egg, egg yolk, lemon zest, lemon juice, and vanilla. Beat until smooth.
Pour custard batter evenly over berries. Tilt pan back and forth to distribute evenly. Bake at 350 degrees F for 25 to 30 minutes or until barely set. Transfer to a wire rack until completely cool, about 1 hour; cover and transfer to refrigerator. Chill 2 hours. Top will crack slightly as it cools.
Use foil to lift the bars from pan. With a knife or metal spatula, support the sides of the bars while you gently peel the foil downward and away from sides of the bars.
Cut into long bars, peel foil from bottom, and transfer to cutting boars using side of a long knife or spatula. Cut into 24 squares

Peach and Blackberry Custard Tart

We have enjoyed all the fresh peaches at the farmers market the last few weekends and they are always giving out samples (which Audrey loves).  I've gotten several just to eat and decided to bake something with them this past week.  I have also been buying lots of blueberries and blackberries and thought the flavor and color contrast would be nice.

This tart was adapted from a recipe published recently in Martha Stewart Living for Peach-Custard Pie.  I chose to make it a more dainty tart and add the blackberries and I quite like my variation. The instructions for peeling the peaches was amazing and I thought the "naked" peaches were so pretty.  You scored them, boiled them for a minute and then placed them in an ice water bath before peeling.

What's not to like about custard?

I started putting the blackberries just in the center and ended up placing them around the entire tart so everyone would have a bit of blackberries. 

Add a huge dollop of fresh whipped cream and it's complete!

Meringue Nests with Blackberries and Cream

Aren't these blackberries gorgeous?  They were on sale at the market and while I used some of them in the apple-blackberry crisp I made last weekend, I still had some to use.  My mum came to visit again and I thought I'd try something special for dessert one evening.  We made crispy, airy, sweet meringue nests with these luscious blackberries and fresh whipped cream.  I guess this is sort of a version of a pavlova, but mini ones. I think pavlovas are typically one large meringue cake with cream and fruit. These are individual little nests made of meringue.  I guess I just like the idea of a nest anyway...it makes everything sound cozy.

The meringue is very easy to make.  I've made it before, but this was my first attempt at nests. I whipped the egg whites, sugar and some vanilla and got this thick glossy meringue.

I spooned these heaping mounds of meringue on the Silpat.  The original recipe called for eight nests and I didn't seem to have room, so I had five pretty large nests.

Then, I took the back of a spoon to hollow out the center (with still leaving a layer in the nest) and smoothed the edges a bit. 

Here they are ready to bake. I know many people pipe them onto the baking sheet, but I sort liked the homemade swirled look to mine.

After two hours of baking at just over 200 degrees, they were all ready and peeled right off the Silpat.  I washed the berries and let them dry so that they wouldn't make wet pools in the meringue nests when I put them together.

Our evening treat was ready with a bunch of berries nestled in the meringue and topped with a big dollop of whipped cream.  It's a very simple dessert that would be easy to prep ahead of time and use with all kinds of fruits.  The flavors were uncomplicated, yet fresh and sophisticated.

Recipe for Meringue Nests

Ingredients:
3 egg whites
175 g/6 oz caster (superfine) sugar
A few drops of vanilla essence (extract)

Lay a Silpat or piece of parchment on a baking (cookie) sheet. Whisk the egg whites until stiff. Add 1 tbsp of the sugar and the vanilla and whisk again until stiff and glossy. Gradually whisk in half the remaining sugar, then fold in the remainder with a metal spoon. Spoon five to eight round heaps of the mixture a little apart on the baking sheet and hollow out slightly in the centers to form nests. Rough up the mixture slightly round the tops. Bake in a preheated oven at 225°F for 2-3 hours or until crisp but still white. Remove from the oven and leave to cool. Carefully lift off the paper and store in an airtight container.

Wash the fruit to fill them in advance and dry in a bowl with paper towel.

For the whipped cream, use 1 cup of heavy whipping cream with a tablespoon of caster sugar and whip on high until thick and creamy.

Apple-Blackberry Crisp

This past summer, my mum and I stopped at an Amish farm stand and bought some gorgeous blackberries. We waited for quite some time for someone to come out and help us and this little girl was sitting on their porch quietly the entire time just looking at us and barely making a noise.  She couldn't have been more than a year old and I was surprised to find her out there on her own. She has the sweetest face and looked so cute in her little Amish outfit.  I almost thought she was a baby doll!

Their farm was immaculate and the wheat fields were bright gold and swaying in the wind making the most calm de-stressing sound. I could've taken a nap laying in that field after eating our blackberries!

 We brought the blackberries home and my mum was reminiscing about how her grandmother used to make apple blackberry pie. Well, we didn't make it then as it wasn't apple season.  But, it is now!  I have tons of honey crisp apples left from our last trip to the orchard...the ones that Audrey is munching on in this photo we recently had taken up at the family farm. I also found blackberries on sale at the local market and thought I'd make an apple-blackberry creation as my mum was coming over to visit. 

I didn't feel like making a traditional pie, so I went with a crisp. I cooked the apples slices first with butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg to cook them down.  It's nice to just throw everything in together to bake, but if you do that with the blackberries, I suppose they would be complete mush.  The apples cooking on the stove top smelled amazing!  And, they looked so pretty when you tossed them in with the blackberries.

The blackberries cooked down and bubbled up making an amazing blackberry apple jam with soft chunks of fruit and a crispy oatmeal crust on top.  It was amazing served warm with vanilla bean ice cream in the company of my wonderful family. Mum really enjoyed it too!  I still have some of the blackberries left and may have to come up with another treat to make as mum is visiting me this week.

Recipe for Apple-Blackberry Crisp

(Adapted from Williams-Sonoma recipe for Apple-Blackberry Cobbler)

Ingredients:

Fruit mixture:

• 2-3 lbs. peeled and cored apples cut into slices (I used honey crisp)
• 1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
• 3 Tbs. cornstarch
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 2 Tbs. fresh lemon juice
• 2 pints blackberries

Crisp:

• 1 cup rolled oats (regular or quick cooking)
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter (room temperature)

Directions:
In a large stock pot, stir together the apples, brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg, cornstarch, lemon zest and lemon juice. Transfer to stove, cover and set over medium heat. Cook the apples, stirring occasionally, until almost tender. Fold in the blackberries and transfer to an oven safe baking dish.

Preheat an oven to 350°F.

For the crisp topping, combine the oats, brown sugar, flour and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Cut in the butter until it resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle crisp topping over fruit filling until covered completely.

Bake the cobbler, uncovered, until the topping is golden brown and crisp, about 35-45 minutes. Let cool for at least 15 minutes before serving.  Serve with vanilla ice cream!