Blackberries- Two ways

Blackberries are the ultimate autumn pudding staple. I always seem to have a stash clogging up my freezer. Here are two exciting ways to include them in your baking. And there’s not a crumble in sight.

You will need:

For the jam- 200g blackberries

                        100g sugar

For the rice pudding- 60g of pudding rice (you can also use risotto rice)

                                         1 pint of milk

                                         50g of sugar

                                      1 teaspoon of vanilla extract (or the seeds from a vanilla pod)

                                           A knob of butter

For the meringue- 4 egg whites

                                    200g of sugar

                                    a teaspoon of cornflour

To make the jam, place the blackberries and the sugar in a pan on a medium- low heat. Leave for about half an hour (you don’t want any whole blackberries left), stirring occasionally. Sieve the jam and leave to cool.

To make the rice pudding, heat the milk with the butter, sugar and vanilla, until the butter melts. Scatter the rice into a pie dish and cover with the milk mixture. Bake at 150 degrees C for about 40 minutes. You will need to stir the pudding around four times throughout the cooking process to stop the rice sticking.

   Unlike a stove- top version, this baked rice pudding will feel slightly more set, but still creamy and delicious.

    When cooked, ripple through the blackberry jam and serve.

The left-overs are delicious re-heated with some white chocolate chips. Simply microwave for a minute.

To make the meringue, whisk the egg whites (you can use a hand held mixer, a freestanding mixture or do it by hand if you are feeling strong) until soft peaks. Still beating, add the sugar slowly (in about four goes) and add the cornflour with the last lot of sugar. Beat until stiff peaks, or until you can turn the bowl upside down. Gently ripple in the jam with a metal spoon.

    You can either pipe your meringues into big circles and small ‘kisses’ (like I have done) or you could smooth it into a large circle to make a pavlova.

    Bake at 130 degrees C for about an hour and a half, I would check them every thirty minutes or so. They are ready when they feel hard on the outside and come easily off the baking paper.

   Serve with cream and fresh fruit, or bag up ‘kisses’ to make unique gifts.