Blackberry Crisp -Recipe Tutorial

I have to apologize...the photos for this recipe have disappeared and until I can locate them you will have to just take my word for it...this is delicious!!

Today, Alley and I decided to make a Blackberry Crisp.  It is so easy to make and is a family favourite.    I had a bucket of berries in the freezer, so once they had thawed enough to be able to separate, we began.  This recipe is not an 'exact' recipe.  You can use it with other fruits and berries by adjusting the amount of sugar and flour used in the actual fruit.  The more tart a fruit, the more sugar you will need to add.  If the fruit you use is not a 'juicey' fruit, you may want to add a bit of water to the fruit to make more sauce. Try 1/4 cup with apples or rhubarb. Berries are pretty juicey so we used more flour than we would have with apples.  You can also try canned fruit.  We have used canned peaches with great success!  It really is the kind of recipe you can adapt to most fruits and berries with just a few adaptations.

Put your berries (or fruit) into a cake pan. I used a 9 x 13 inch glass one.

Now sprinkle sugar all over the berries.  You want to put on enough so that your fruit will not be too tart. We added about a cup of sugar on ours.

Next add flour.  This will absorb the juices and mix with the sugar to create a sauce.
If you didn't add this it would be very runny.    One cup was about right for our berries. 

Stir it up a bit, not too much, just enough to get it mixed down into the berries.

Now you mix up the crisp part.  Our family loves the crisp topping part, so we always make enough for a nice thick layer.  I use
 2 cups of flour,
2 cups of sugar (white or brown) and
2 cups of oatmeal.
Then add 1 teaspoon of salt.
Mix that all together and then add 1 1/2 cups of softened margarine.
Use your hands to work the margarine into the dry ingredients.

It will stick together in a ball, but still be crumbly when you are done.

Sprinkle the topping over the berries evenly.

Don't pack it down, just sprinkle it on and then you can smooth it out a bit.

You can see here how thick our crisp topping is!

Into the oven it goes at 375 F for 45 minutes.

Almost done!

Ta da! All done!  You can see how the berry juice has bubbled up around the edges.

This was my first bowl!  I ended up eating 2!!  Delicious!

To sum it up, you need a cake pan of fruit (apples, berries, rhubarb), sugar, flour, margarine and salt.  If you try it with apples, add some cinnamon to the sugar and flour you sprinkle over the fruit.
If you have any questions or need further info, leave me a comment. I'd be happy to give you more instructions!