Blackberry Hazelnut Muffins

These delightful little muffins are very quick and easy to bake, and they burst with flavors. The blackberries give them a nice tartness, and their taste also goes very well with the hazelnuts. You can either use fresh or frozen blackberries. If you plan to use frozen berries, you don't have to thaw them beforehand.

You can also substitute with other berries or nuts, so change them up and you have a new muffin all year round.

Blackberry Ricotta Cheesecake

I haven't made cheesecake in a while, so it was about time. I didn't want to make a plain one, but one with a fruit topping. Since summer is coming to an end, the choices for fresh fruit are getting smaller. Luckily we still had some blackberries in the garden. We picked enough of them to pile them up high on the cake, drizzled with some maple syrup.

The cheesecake batter uses a combination of ricotta, yoghurt, as well as some quark. It's really creamy, but not as heavy as when made with cream cheese. I think it would also look very pretty with raspberries, but I guess this has to wait until next year.

Blackberry Coconut Cakes

Lately I came across a number of recipes that call for a combination of blackberry and coconut. This pairing sounded a little odd at first, but as unfamiliar as it was, it had a hint of intrigue in flavor and texture. I first tried a blackberry coconut tart, then some blackberry coconut popsicles. After my initial success I decided to try something a little more challenging.

The recipe came again from one of my favorite German patissiers Bernd Siefert. I really love his cakes, and have baked several of his recipes over time, some of them I already blogged about, like the Strawberry-Raspberry Charlotte, the Chocolate Berry Tart and the Strawberry-Champagne Cake. One day I really have to take a trip up to his cafe.

This cake consists of two layers of coconut sponge, filled with blackberry-coconut mousse. The sponge cake itself is not very thick, so it's a little difficult to cut it into two slices. Alternatively you could bake them separately, each with half the batter. The mousse really gets its flavor boost from the lemongrass. The longer you steep the lemongrass in the coconut milk, the more intense it gets.

Blackberry-Hazelnut Muffins

Blackberries are usually in season later in summer. Now in September it already might be a little difficult to get them still, depending on where you are. We have had a lot of them in our garden this year, but the wild ones that you find in the forest or on some hiking trails are still my favorites. They are just so much sweeter.

These muffins are really easy to make. They are basically like a crumble with fruit in the middle. They are a little delicate to handle, because they are so crumbly. There is also a good amount of hazelnuts in there and some lime to give a little zing. If you want to make blackberry jam, you can also add some lime juice and zest. It is a very good combination altogether.

Blackberry Nectarine Crumble

In the last few years we were lucky to know a few places in Vancouver where you can find lots of blackberries. They were always very sweet and there was an abundant amount of them. In no time my basket was full. This year we have our own blackberries in the garden, but I must say the wild ones always taste sweeter, maybe because it seems like a little treasure hunt if you take a walk and find them. Nevertheless our blackberries are still tasty. Perfect in combination with some nectarines.

I made my favorite crumble recipe from the book Rustic Fruit Desserts. I love this crumble recipe, it's very simple and goes very well with all kinds of fruit. I have made it before with rhubarb, rhubarb & strawberry, rhubarb & apricot and peach & apricot. You should try it with your favorite fruit combination.

Now, I have some happy news to share. I won second place with my picture of the red currant cakes in glass jars at this month' DMBLGIT contest! I always admired the awarded pictures and am very honored to be one of them now. Thank you very much for choosing my picture and thank you to CookSister for hosting.