Blackberries are saying a long goodbye this season. Lucky for us we can enjoy the berry bounty a little longer.  Over the years blackberries have gained more notice  for their high antioxidant strength and are a fantastic source of vitamins C, B, and K, folic acid, and dietary fiber.  I was lucky enough to be the recipient of a small bounty of the luscious berries and decided it was time to make a blackberry crisp.

One notable change that I made from my usual crisp is that I experimented with a whole-wheat crust.  I liked the results enough to share them with Food For Thought, if whole wheat is not something you would like to try, please just refer to your favorite pie crust recipe.

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Blackberry Crisp

Whole Wheat Pie Crust

This is enough for a single crust pie

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup All purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 stick unsalted butter cold, cut into small pieces

1/4 cup of ice water

Combine flour and salt in medium sized mixing bowl.  Add butter.  Using your hands, work the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs with some larger pieces here and there.  Slowly add your water, you may not need it all.  Mix until the dough just holds together.  Form into a disk, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 15 minutes.

To roll out the dough, sprinkle work surface with all purpose flour, this seemed to work a lot better than using whole wheat.  Roll out to desired shape.  Place in pie pan.

Blackberry filling

5 cups fresh blackberries

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup all purpose flour

zest of an orange

Toss everything together and pour into prepared pie shell

Andrea’s favorite pie topping

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1 stick of butter cut in small pieces

Place all the ingredients in a medium sized mixing bowl.  Working the butter into the flour sugar mixture with your hands until large clumps begin to form.

Sprinkle topping over blackberries.  Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes, or until the pie looks golden brown on the sides and top.

Enjoy with a dollop of fresh whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Andrea Charroin was a trained baker and pastry chef in San Francisco before she and her family moved to Redding nine years ago. After falling in love with Redding’s downtown, Andrea and husband Westley opened a little pastry shop, Rene-Joule Patisserie, across from the Cascade Theatre. For the three years Rene-Joule was in business, it was renowned for making everything from scratch, using the best ingredients and keeping with a seasonal menu. To this day, Andrea is asked about her Marathon Bars, Orange Twists and sourdough bread.

Copyright 2008 Andrea R. Charroin. Visit my blog at bakerslove.typepad.com.

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