We're very lucky in that we grow all of our own soft fruits in our back garden. I freeze what we can't manage to eat fresh so that we can enjoy them in the colder months. A little taste of summer . . . it's quite heady . . .
We grow our own strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, black currants, gooseberries, tayberries and blueberries. Although in truth our tayberries are more blackberries now than they are tayberries . . . I think the blackberries have sent out their shoots beneath the ground and are taking over.
Oh such a lovely lot of berries . . . sweet and tart and perfect for light desserts and sauces.
Beautiful desserts such as this warm berry compote . . . so simple and delicious . . .wonderful on it's own with a bit of cream . . . or spooned over your morning oats . . .
but equally as scrummy spooned warm over vanilla ice cream . . . the warm juices trickling down the cool vanilla mountain and mingling with it's sweet milkyness . . .
Or served cold in a bowl and topped with a dollop of softly whipped cream . . . the perfect foil for it's heady richness and beautiful colours . . . or . . . and this is the creme de la creme . . . spooned onto the bottom of a buttery fruit scone and topped with tasty dollop of Clotted Cream!
And . . . why not! mmm . . . mmm . . . mmm . . . oh YES, I am a naughty girl!
* Warm Berry Compote*
Serves 6Printable Recipe
Rich and heady. Beautifully coloured. Simple. Perfect with some cold ice cream, vanilla of course!
400g of fruit (a generous pound) blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, loganberries, tayberries etc.
(I use about half blueberries) (you can use frozen)
4 TBS caster sugar
3 TBS spiced berry squash drink mix, undiluted (can use a fruit flavoured liqueur such as framboise)(In North America you can use an undiluted frozen drink such as minute maid frozen summer fruits, and add some cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves to it)
Put half of the berries (blueberries) into a heavy bottomed saucepan. Sprinkle with the sugar and the berry squash drink mix. Slowly bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer just to the point where the berries seem about to burst. Remove from the heat. Stir in the raspberries, blackberries and any other fruit you are using.
Serve warm in glasses or small bowls, or spooned over ice cream.
Delicious also spooned between fruited scones along with a nice dollop of clotted cream. The ultimate in a cream tea!
