Thursday's Treat: Blackberry Mini Pies & The Darling

Growing up in the Pacific Northwest meant heaping bounties of blackberries in the summer months. While the Himalayan Blackberry is actually an invasive plant, which can grow to be bigger than a house, it does provide some pretty tasty treats.

I shelled out for a bunch of fancy Whole Food berries when Christine came into town, but I has a tiny pint leftover. Too little to make a real pie, but too many to justify eating with whip-cream and sugar (don't judge). So I made this:

Blackberry Mini Pies

This is all you need:

• 1/8 cups white sugar
• Single pie crust (from here), or get lazy and buy a frozen pie crust (the rolled up kind - not the already in a pan kind)
• 6 ounces of fresh blackberries
• Butter (just a sliver, and don't try to subsitute this for anything else, just leave it out if you need to)
• Tart pans (I use these) or a muffin pan



Hedgehog measuring cups help out the process a lot.

Steps:
1) Wash the berries and let them air dry while you create/defrost (frozen) dough.
2) Mix the berries with the sugar and leave to mix together
3) Roll the dough out, and create mini pie crusts by tracing around the edge of the tart pan + 1 inch.

3) Press the dough gently into the tart pans, and trim the excess off. Chill in the fridge for 2 - 3 minutes
4) Roll the edge of the dough over, tucking into the tart pan to make things pretty

5) Butter the bottom of the crust
6) Dump in some sugared blackberries
                              

7) Top the mini pies with the extra dough in a lattice work pattern
8) Bake at 350F for 10 minutes, or until the lattice work looks almost brown. Kill the heat and let sit in the oven for another 10-15 minutes.

9) Enjoy with ice cream, whipped cream, or a trashy magazine.

According to Caroline, I can't be a true yuppie because I don't have a cake stand.

P.S. Christine got me this Cupcake Royale plate for Christmas!

The Darling

I've been spending a lot of down time on porches and balconies lately, grilling, drinking, and people watching....

and last weekend Grant created this concotion:

1.5 ounces of Bourbon (he uses a bottle from Breckenridge Distillery)
1-2 ounce Schweppes Bitter Lemon soda
and 2-3 wedges of clementine

1) Muddle the clementine at the bottom of the glass
2) Pour in the bourbon, followed by the soda to taste
3) Mix and enjoy!

P.S. I totally helped him name it, that counts, right?! I thought of the song my Grandpa used to sing Oh My Darling, Clementine....which is actually a really sad song.

xxCharlotte