What to Do with Summer BlackberriesTurn them into light, airy, mousse-like flummery

Last summer, I found blackberries that were the Platonic ideal of what that fruit should be—luscious, glossy, and the size of my thumb. I discovered them at Sickles Market, a 107-year-old farmstand-turned-gourmet-grocery in Little Silver, New Jersey, where Bob Sickles sells blackberries that he grows, along with raspberries, on the same plot of land that's been farmed by his family since the mid 17th century. I took home pintfuls of them with the intention of making a Sickles family recipe that Bob shared with me: flummery, an old-fashioned pudding-like dessert.

I cooked the fruit with sugar and strained it to make a fragrant syrup, which I goosed with lemon juice, thickened with cornstarch, and put into the fridge. Once set, the flummery had a light, ethereal, mousse-like texture. While you can discard the solids after straining the berries, the SAVEUR test kitchen found that they make a great topping for the dish.

Blackberry Flummery
PHOTOGRAPHY BY FARIDEH SADEGHIN
Recipes

What to Do with Summer Blackberries

Turn them into light, airy, mousse-like flummery

By Karen Shimizu


Published on July 15, 2015

Last summer, I found blackberries that were the Platonic ideal of what that fruit should be—luscious, glossy, and the size of my thumb. I discovered them at Sickles Market, a 107-year-old farmstand-turned-gourmet-grocery in Little Silver, New Jersey, where Bob Sickles sells blackberries that he grows, along with raspberries, on the same plot of land that's been farmed by his family since the mid 17th century. I took home pintfuls of them with the intention of making a Sickles family recipe that Bob shared with me: flummery, an old-fashioned pudding-like dessert.

I cooked the fruit with sugar and strained it to make a fragrant syrup, which I goosed with lemon juice, thickened with cornstarch, and put into the fridge. Once set, the flummery had a light, ethereal, mousse-like texture. While you can discard the solids after straining the berries, the SAVEUR test kitchen found that they make a great topping for the dish.

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