After two weeks of rain the SUN has finally come out here in Texas and we’ve got blackberries galore!!! Since I’ve got way more berries than even I can eat (and I can eat alot of blackberries!) I decided it would be a good idea to make blackberry jelly.
I dug out my canning cookbook and looked up a recipe for fresh berry jelly. As I read through the recipe I was making a mental check list of everything thing I had in the pantry.
“Sweet!! I thought to myself I’ve got everything I need!” And I started to make the jelly. Since I was using fresh berries I used the “heating” method to extract the juice from my blackberries (see NOTE at the bottom)
After about 5 minutes…
Then after about 10 minutes… Look at all that juice!!
Now time to strain off the juice to make my jelly… The recipe said to use a strainer lined with cheese cloth.
While I was waiting for the juice to strain I decided I would get the other ingredients out of the pantry. That’s when I discovered that I didn’t have the fruit-pectin that I just KNEW was in the pantry. “Great!!” I thought now what am I supposed to do with 3 cups of blackberry juice. I could us it for cocktails, but it was two early in the day of that. Plus, I was already making some blackberry infused vodka. Then like a bolt of lighting it hit me…
“OOooHH!!! I could make Blackberry Sorbet!!!” Mmmm with basil and a vanilla bean!! I quickly looked up some basic sorbet recipes to get the portions of juice to simple syrup, grabbed some fresh basil out of my garden and a vanilla bean out of the pantry. That evening we had scoops of fresh blackberry and basil sorbet for dessert.
Honestly, I can’t think of a better way to welcome in the hot Texas summer days than a scoop of this refreshing blackberry and basil sorbet!
Fresh Blackberry Basil Sorbet
Ingredients:
About 9 cups Fresh Blackberries*
3 Cups Blackberry Juice (Strained of seeds)
2 Lemons, Juiced
1-1/2 Cups Water
1-1/2 Cups Sugar
1 Handful Fresh Basil (about 3 sprigs stems and all)
1 Vanilla Bean (split lengthwise)
Directions:
First, make the Basil-Vanilla Simple Syrup…
In a medium-sized sauce pan bring the water and sugar up to a boil stirring constantly until the sugar dissolves. Once boiling remove the syrup from the heat and add in the vanilla bean and basil and steep for about 15 minutes. Strain the syrup and chill while making the blackberry juice.
In a large pot over medium heat, add the 9 cups of blackberries and about 1/2 cup of water (just to keep the berries from scorching on the bottom).
Bring the berries up to a boil then reduce heat and simmer for about 10 minutes until all the berries are soft.
While the berries simmer mash them into a pulp using a potato masher.
After 10 minutes cool the blackberry pulp slightly then strain the pulp through a very fine mesh sieve (we don’t want any seeds).
Strain out the blackberry juice from the pulp (forget the cheese cloth and just use a fine mesh sieve). Then add the juice of 2 lemons to the strained juice.
Combine the blackberry juice and the simple syrup and chill completely.
Then pour the chilled sorbet mixture into an ice-cream maker. When it sounds like the ice-cream machine is struggling (after about 20 minutes) and the sorbet looks like this… 
Your sorbet is ready 🙂
Scoop the sorbet into a container and freezer until firm (about 2 hours) then serve on a hot summer day!
*Note: When I made this recipe I used fresh blackberries but if you don’t have fresh blackberries coming our your ears like I do frozen berries work great too. If fact, according to my canning book it says it’s actually easier to extract the juice from berries (raspberries, strawberries, and blackberries) if they have been frozen then thawed. If using frozen berries thaw them, then mash them, then strain the juice out.
- For every 3 cups of blackberries you get about 1 cup of juice.
Meals With Mel 
Wow! Your blackberries are beautiful! And the combination of blackberry and basil sounds delightful! Yum! 😊
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I bet it will be difficult to wash that color out of the cheese cloth 😉
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Blackberries stain almost as bad a beets 🙂
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That makes sense as it is both the same natural coloring agent: anthocyanin.
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Absolutely refreshing an delicious…and such gorgeous blackberries!!! Perfect sorbet!!
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OH my goodness that looks so delicious Mel! We have wild blackberry bushes across from our RV river property at the coast, but our blackberries don’t ripen until September. We have to fight them not to grow wild all over our property, as they spread like wildfire. But now I know what I can do if I come home with a large batch!
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This indeed sounds like a refreshing bite of something sweet to enjoy during the heat of summer.
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Thanks Karen!! We certainly need something to help cool down in Texas time of year 🙂
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Hey Melody– this looks super!! I would never in the world would have thought of putting the berries and basil together— so beautiful, what a color! And you’re berry bushes look so much and healthy. Really fun that you included those photos!! Great post! Hope you’re having a great launch into summer! xox
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Thanks Rhonda 🙂
The garden is currently out of control right now and I can hardly keep up with it. I think today I’m going to test out a recipe for homemade tomato preserves. Fingers crossed!
The original idea of combing blackberry and basil together came from a cocktail. It was a blackberry infused vodka with blackberry juice and a basil lime simple syrup.
Hope you are enjoying you summer vacation!!!
Melody
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OK, that cocktail alls sounds fabulous for summer! Hope you can post your tomato preserves– sound intriguing! do serve them on bread, with chicken or pork??? I’ve never had a chance to taste it! — and, an out of control garden, sounds like the best kind– lots to take into the kitchen! Happy preserving!! hugs.
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Honestly I’ve NEVER had tomato preserves before either. It’s an old family recipe from my husbands grandmother, that was given to me by his aunt. He never knew his grandmother and doesn’t like tomatoes so he is not thrilled that I’m making something called “tomato preserves”. I love tomatoes though and I think it will be great!! So fingers crossed it turns out right!!
hugs!!
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I think tomatoes and tomato preserves are two different things! I’m not fond of raw tomato, but love it cooked in all kinds of forms. I’m anxious to hear how it all comes out– and hopeful it will even convert your sweet (tomato deficient) husband!!
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Really? There are few things I love more than a ripe tomato just off the vine in summer 🙂 The tomato preserves turned out well and even my mother in-law and her sisters loved them (it was their mothers recipe) and I sent them all home with a jar. I served drizzled over some fresh ricotta on toasted baguette and it was really tasty. Hope all is well with y’all!!
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OK, the tomato preserves with ricotta and toasted baguette could be dinner enough for me– with a glass of wine under the maple tree in the backyard. sounds perfect! Are you passing along the preserve recipe???? I’ll bet your mother-in-law and the sisters were delighted that you revived the recipe. How dear! Happy summer ahead– is it really warm there yet?
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Haha I did make dinner out of these these toasts with the ricotta and tomato preserves one night… With the glass of wine 🙂 I plan on sharing the recipe in a couple of weeks… I wanted to do my Grandmothers peach cobbler next for Fourth of July.
I think my mother in law liked the preserves. I felt ALOT of pressure trying to make their mothers recipe right. I couldn’t make it exactly the same because I didn’t have the specific variety of tomatoes it called for… But the way I see it Grandmother Cole would have made do with what she had 🙂
Happy summer days ahead to you too!! I think the weather is warm at home but we are in Los Cabos, Mexico are the moment and it’s PERFECT here!! I could live in Baja Mexico.
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Yep, that’s the best kind of dinner. Easy, simple delicious. Oh gosh– you do want to meet up to there tomato preserve expectations– but I’m thinking they loved them, just because you took the time/effort to recreate the recipe!! Waiting to see the peach cobbler recipe– and have the Best Time in Los Cabos!! xo
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Love fresh picked blackberries. Nothing better.
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I totally agree…Nothing beats a berry right off the vine 🙂
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So true.
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Something about berries and basil make a great combo… looks delicious!
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