Blast of Blackberry

On our way home from Costco, we stopped by our secret roadside blackberry bush and picked ourselves some free blackberries. And what can you love more than free fruits? Free fruits that you can turn into a cocktail!

In the heat of summer, you can't beat fresh berries and ice cold drinks. So as a salute to summer, drink up!

Blackberry bliss, makes me smile.
Note--the top right corner picture is my lemon-infused syrup, the syrup left over from the last time I candied lemons.

Blackberry Mint Cocktail

40 mint leaves

1/3 cup blackerries

2 tablespoons simple syrup

1/2 lime, juiced
1/2 lime, cut into wedges

4 ounces vodka

club soda or lemon-lime soda

1. Muddle mint, lime wedges, and blackberries in a tall pitcher.

2. Add simple syrup, vodka, and lime juice and mix well.
3. Strain into glasses filled with ice.
4. Top with soda.

I love blackberries and wanted to make the most out of our loot. I've always loved blackberry pie and have never made it so I thought, why not? A really good friend of mine got me a pie book last year for my birthday, so I looked up a blackberry pie recipe from the book and ran with it.

 

Blackberry Pie

1 pie crust (recipe follows)**

1 cup blackberries
1 tablespoon flour

1/4 lemon, juiced
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon butter

1. Preheat over to 375 degrees.
2. Mix blackberries, flour, sugar, and lemon juice together. Set aside.
3. Divide pie crust. Roll out one pie crust and line pie dish.
4. Spoon blackberry mixture into pie dish.
5. Sprinkle butter on top of blackberry mixture.
6. Cover blackberry filling with second rolled out pie crust. Sprinkle pit crust with sugar.
7. Crimp the edges to make sure the filling will not seep out during baking.
8. Bake for 1 hour.
9. Let cool before serving.

Pie Crust
1 1/2 cup flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup butter, cut into small cubes
1/4 cup vegetable shortening (I just used vegetable oil)
1/4 cup cold water

1. Mix flour, salt, and sugar in a large bowl.
2. Add butter and rub until mixture resmebles coarse sand. Work quickly so you don't melt all the butter.
3. Add vegetable shortening and mix with a fork.
4. Add cold water and mix until incorporated.
5. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
6. Divide dough into 4 peices and rool each piece out to 1/8 inch thick.

**For the above blackberry pie recipe, I made 3 mini pies (using a large cupcake tin) and used only 1/4 of the pie crust recipe for all 3 pies.

So, if you have a blackberry bush to pick from, do it and make something delicious out of it. And when you do, let me know what creations you think of and hot it turns out. Happy summer!