BBB: Blackberry Basil Buckle

Adapted from Alexandria's Kitchen for the buckle idea, and my cousin Katrina (via Ally's Kitchen) for the blackberry and basil combo! Plus a little bit of my own experimentation. :)

As I said, I got the idea for the combination of blackberries and basil from my cousin Katrina. She is looking for wedding cake alternatives, and liked the idea of the two together, so she asked me if I would be willing to experiment with it to make a bar-type dessert.  What a great excuse for me to be in the kitchen, right?! :D

So I set out on my adventure to experiment with baking recipes...something I have always thought never to do because it is so precise, and easy to mess up!  But I decided to just jump right in.  I found a rhubarb buckle recipe that had a nice bottom crust and crumble topping, so I just thought I would replace the rhubarb part with blackberries and basil.  Simple enough right?

I started out by making the crust first, because it needs to chill for at least an hour before using it.  Whisk together the flour and sugar in a bowl, then cut in the chilled and chunked butter, blending with a pastry blender until it has a coarse texture and pea size chunks of butter left (a little bit finer than the picture, some of those chunks are a little big yet).  In a separate bowl, combine the heavy cream and egg and beat well, then stir it into the dry ingredients and gently knead (with floured hands if its sticking) until a dough forms.  Flatten the dough ball into a disk and chill for at least an hour.  If you don't have heavy cream, you can substitute 1.5 tbsp milk and 1/2 tbsp. butter, tempered together.  This will work with any recipe that calls for heavy cream in baking, as long as it doesn't need to be whipped.

In the meantime, collect your basil, blackberries, and lemon, washing and drying them all well.  The basil I used came straight from the garden so it had extra dirt on it, so I placed it in a bowl of water and swirled it around to let all the dirt sink to the bottom while the leaves float.  Then I set them out on a paper towel, patting them with another towel to dry them. Alternately, if the basil is store bought, you could rinse and dry it in a salad spinner.  This method just works well if there is a lot of excess dirt on the leaves.  Also prepare the lemon zest for the fruit mixture.  I don't have a micro-plane to grate the lemon, so I used a regular cheese grater and it worked just fine.

Chop the basil into medium size pieces, and combine in a bowl with the blackberries, lemon zest, and sugar. Stir well and mash the blueberries slightly.  Let it sit for a while (in this case until time to use it in the bars), allowing the mixture to macerate.  You can stir it every once in a while to aid in that process.

To make the crumb topping, simply mix together the flour, brown sugar, and salt.  Then add the softened butter and mesh with your hands until it is clumpy. Mine didn't end up very clumpy so I am contemplating the implications.  It was still yummy, but I wonder if using all white flour instead of half and  half would help with this....perhaps next time I make it, the crust will be 100% whole wheat and the crumb topping will be 100% all purpose flour...

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a 9x9 baking dish with parchment paper, pressing down into the corners and edges.  Take the the dough out of the fridge after an hour minimum, and place it in the center of the dish and flatten it, pressing all around the sides and edges to make sure the dough is evenly spread into the corners and center (I contemplated if it would be better to chill the dough for a half hour, then do this step, then chill it again once its pressed into the pan....that will be another modification I will make next time I try it!).  Then spread the fruit mixture on the crust, topping with the crumble.  Bake in the oven for 30 minutes at 400 degrees, then reduce the heat to 350 and bake for an additional 25 minutes.

The buckle will be golden brown on top with the fruit mixture bubbling through slightly.  Let sit for about 15 minutes before doing anything with it. It will be too soft to pull the parchment paper out yet.  After the resting period, pull buckle out of the dish and cut into squares. :) Each bar should come out fairly clean, with a solid crust.

Yummy!  I would have never thought of mixing basil and blackberries, but this one is definitely going in the recipe box to make in the future! I had to sneak 2 pieces right away because it was so good. :) For the full recipe and nutritional information, click HERE.

Another chill song...this time from the band Cocoon, called "Owls."

Thanks for stopping by!