Making the most of wild blackberries
It was late September and all the wild blackberries had already dried out on their bushes. "Next year", I said to myself, "I need to pick them earlier".
So this year, on a cloudy August afternoon, I decided to go and check on the wild blackberry bushes that are abundant near Serra da Arrábida. It was just at the right moment. Some of them were already dried but my mother and me still managed to pick a lot of plump, shiny and sweet wild blackberries.
As I drove back home I couldn't stop thinking about a berry pound cake recipe I had tried from the wonderful book A Homemade Life - one of my favourite cookbooks ever - by Molly Wizenberg, the creator of one of my longtime favourite blogs, Orangette.
For this recipe I've followed her advice on using blackberries instead of blueberries and raspberries, and did the suggested correction of flavourings, adding lemon and orange zest to the recipe. I've also opted for coconut sugar, with the correspondent adjustment of quantity, since coconut sugar is much sweeter than the regular one.
Wild Blackberry Pound Cake
2 cups + 2 tbsp flour, preferably spelt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/3 cups coconut sugar
5 eggs
250g unsalted butter, diced and at room temperature
1 tsp lemon zest
1 tsp orange zest
2 cups blackberries
Start by pre-heating the oven to 180ºC and placing your oven rack in the middle position. Grease and flour a bundt pan (I used a silicone one). In a bowl whisk 2 cups of flour, baking powder and salt. In a food processor blend sugar with eggs for about 1 minute. Then add the the diced butter,lemon and orange zest and blend again, not forgetting to scrape the sides of the bowl. Add the dry ingredients and process until just combined. In a large bowl toss the blackberries with the 2 tbsp of flour. Pour the batter over the berries and gently fold to combine. Pour the batter into the pan and spread it evenly on the top. Bake for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let it cool at least 20 minutes before serving.