Blackberry Dumplings!

These "Blackberry Dumplings" are an old recipe my grandmother and aunts used to make when my mother was growing up.  It's a recipe that used what they had available on the farm...plenty of cream, butter and whatever fruit was in season at the time.   The wild blackberries grew plentiful back then on Kentucky farms and they are absolutely the best blackberries.  They are smaller, but so much sweeter than the big blackberries sold in stores today that are fairly tasteless.   The one negative to wild blackberries is picking them and getting chigger bites and maybe running across the occasional snake or two...that might be two negatives...lol.  

You can also use frozen blackberries in this recipe, but fresh is better.  There is  no substituting for the cream and butter in this recipe and if you do, please don't tell me.   It makes me queasy!   We make these almost identical to the strawberry dumplings, but more sugar is required.  Don't try to skimp on the sugar, because blackberries are much harder to sweeten than strawberries, especially in- season strawberries. 

 Here is what you will need:

2  1/2 cups biscuit mix (like Bisquick)

3/4 cup cold water

4 cups fresh blackberries

8 Tbs. butter, divided

2 cups sugar, divided

2 cups heavy cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

 Mix the biscuit mix and water and roll into a ball. Place on a floured surface. We used biscuit mix not only because it's easier for today's cooks, but it works really well for this.

Divide the ball into 8 equal pieces.

  Roll each piece into a circle.  Place 1/ 2 cup blackberries, 1 Tbs. butter and 3 Tbs. sugar on top of the berries.

Wet the dough around the edges just a little and pinch each 'dumpling' up into a  little purse.  Place seam side up in a greased 9"x13" baking dish. 

Pour the 2 cups of cream over  and around the dumplings.  Sprinkle each with 1 more tablespoon of sugar.  Place in a 350 degree oven for 1 hour uncovered.  Half way through the baking time, remove from the oven and dip some of the cream up and pour back over the tops of each dumpling.  This keeps them from drying out and makes the tops nice and brown.

Blackberry Dumplings