Never Too Many Blackberries

They come by the quart—they come by the bucket. Like peaches, and tomatoes and zucchini, they fill up the fridge and the counters for their star-turn weeks in summer—and then they’re gone. After eating and baking and piling black berries on vanilla ice cream, take the rest and save them for Christmas-time! A quick and easy way, only 3 ingredients, to preserve that summer flavor for holiday baking. Make this in small batches.

Very quick blackberry preserves
• 1 pint of blackberries, rinsed
• ¾ cup sugar
• Juice of ½ lemon

First, put a ceramic saucer in freezer. Then mix berries, sugar and lemon juice in a 1 ½ quart, micro-wave safe casserole dish. Gently mash berries until they soften and juice starts to rum. Cook in microwave for 5 minutes. Stir and return to microwave for 4 minutes. Stir again—mixture should be starting to thicken. Microwave and stir once or twice more, for 1 minute each time.

Test for doneness—take the ice-cold saucer, hold it at a slight angle, and let a few drops of berry mixture slide off the tip of the spoon. If the berries congeal quickly on the saucer, the preserves are about done. If the berry mixture runs down the saucer, microwave in 1-minute increments until done. Mixture will thicken as it cools. Store in jar in fridge or in plastic bag in freezer.

Ready when you are for jam tart filling and holiday thumbprint cookies.

The Kitchen Hive