Blackberry Topping

[JudyJB]

I eat pancakes and crepes often, and like a variety of toppings, especially real maple syrup. However, I also like blueberry or other fruit toppings, but most of the time when I look at the label, they contain corn syrup, which I think just makes them flavored corn syrup.

So I bought a couple of those very small packages of blackberries the other day for a total of $4. Today I decided to make my own syrup, so I washed them and put them in a medium saucepan with about a 1/4 cup of water and 1.5 cups of sugar. I slowly brought it to a boil, stirring once in a while so it would not burn. Then I used my immersion blender and while the pan was still simmering, I ground the whole berries up a bit. (I think you could do this with a potato masher or even just a spoon once they get soft.) I let it bubble just a bit more and then covered it with a lid and let it cool.

After it was mostly cooled, I poured it into one of those pint sized Rubbermaid jugs with the pouring spout and lids and will keep it in the refrigerator. It made a full pint and was delicious! And no corn syrup! I think you could do this with any other kind of berry. I am going to put it over pancakes and maybe even ice cream. Total cost was $4 plus maybe 75 cents worth of sugar? It does have seeds, so that might be a problem for some people, but it tastes much fresher than the stuff you buy in the store. Probably freezable also.

Tip: Don't wear a white shirt while doing this. The blender spattered juice all over my shirt, and that took half an hour plus two doses of stain remover to get it all out.

[snowball]

sounds yummy
will have to give it a try
sheila

[MandysMom]

You could maybe put it through a sieve to remove seeds. Sounds yummy and you are right it's good to avoid corn syrup, ESP since it is 100% GMO now.
Velda

[bluepinecones]

Sounds great tho I think I'd use less sugar as I don't like things very sweet in the morning.
Local strawberries are coming in; might give it a try using them.

[Redetotry]

My Granny always made blackberry cobbler from just the juice, like Mandy suggested she put them through a sieve. I wonder if you couldn't make it without putting sugar in, I don't like to do much sugar, especially in the morning, makes me jittery.

[JudyJB]

I think you need some sugar or it would be just runny berries.

What you could do is use about half the sugar and then add some fruit pectin you buy for canning. It acts as a thickener for jam. Might also try cornstarch, but I don't know about that.

Way back before sugar was easily available, people preserved fruit by gently simmering it all day until the water was mostly gone. That gave you apple butter or something similar, but it is hard to do because the blackberries are pretty sour and contain a lot of water.

[snowball]

have seen recipes that use I think Chia to thicken it with believe that is the one anyway
in fact perhaps on here is a recipe for strawberry jam with either chia or another seed that was used
for the thickener
sheila