Blackberry Crisp – Blackberry Panna Cotta

• 4 cups fresh blackberries /I also added a few strawberries
• 4 tablespoons white sugar
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups rolled oats
• 1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 1/2 cups butter

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. In a large bowl, gently toss together blackberries and white sugar and set aside.
3. In a separate large bowl, combine flour, oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Cut in butter until crumbly. Press half of mixture in the bottom of a 9x13 inch pan. Cover with berries. Sprinkle remaining crumble mixture over the berries.
4. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes, or until fruit is bubbly and topping is golden brown.

Panna Cotta

¾ lb blackberries (about 3 cups)
1 ¼ cups well-shaken buttermilk
2 ¾ teaspoons unflavored gelatin
¼ cup water
1 ½ cups heavy cream
⅔ cup sugar
2 tablespoons of blackberry syrup

For the Puree:

Wash the blackberries, and place them in a blender. Add the buttermilk to the blender.

Run the purée through a sieve to remove the seeds and any chunks. The heart and soul of a great panna cotta is its texture, so don’t let any chunks through, you'll ruin that.

Now, mix the water and gelatin to hydrate the gelatin. While it's hydrating, heat the cream and sugar over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. When the sugar dissolves, turn off the heat, add the gelatin mixture to the cream mixture. Stir until the gelatin dissolves completely. If it doesn't dissolve after a couple of minutes, put it back on low heat to help the gelatin dissolve. Really, this is the only part of the process that is tricky. If you put gelatin chunks into the panna cotta, you will be very unhappy with the texture, so keep stirring until every tiny-teeny itty-bitty chunk of gelatin is dissolved. Mix in the blackberry syrup (blackberry syrup can be made by mixing ¼ cup blackberry jam with 1 tablespoon water and nuking it until it dissolves - use 2 tbsp of this mix).

Pour the mixture into a panna cotta mold, cover and set in the fridge to solidify (this takes 6-8 hours).

Shortly before serving, make the compote:

½ cup water
½ cup crème de cassis / I use Italian Blackberry Soda Syrup
2 tablespoons sugar
1 ½ tablespoons fresh lemon juice
½ lb blackberries (about 2 cups)
dash of cinnamon

Mix the cassis, water and sugar, and simmer over medium heat in a double boiler until it reduces to one-third of a cup. Take off the heat, mix in the lemon juice and gently put one dash of cinnamon in there. You want a very small amount of cinnamon. Pour this mix over the blackberries.

To unmold the panna cotta run a knife around the outside of the panna cotta. Then put the hottest water you can get out of your tap into a bowl, and hold the bottom of the panna cotta dish in the bowl. You'll be melting the gelatin again here, so just let it sit until you count to 8. Any longer than that will make for an ugly mess. Pull it out of the hot water, place a serving plate upside down on top of the mold, and flip it over. Shake it a couple times sharply, and lift the mold up. The panna cotta should slide out gently. Spoon some compote over the panna cotta and serve.

My guess is that my new found produce group could be a weighty problem. But a yummy problem that will be! I’ve already had 2 servings of the crisp….panna cotta just tempting me!