Too Many Raspberries

[amyd]

We just came back from a pick-your-own farm stand and have a TON of raspberries. Other than eating them straight or with cream, does anyone have suggestions for a home baker?

[Redsugar]

In rapture over raspberries! There are a myriad uses for fresh raspberries, including ice cream, cobblers, coulis, frozen mousses, coupes, sour-cream coffee cakes, etc. On a more elegant level, one can make a Charlotte Russe or a large raspberry-studded Napoleon that's quite stunning. Also wonderful on a Pavlova or a Hazelnut-Meringue Cake.

Jane Grigson was spot-on, when she wrote that "raspberries are above all the fruit for eating raw, preferably on their own with Jersey cream and sugar. They are compatible with peaches and melon, if there are just a few of them, or with cream cheese mixtures. These remarks do not of course apply to people who grow so many raspberries that they are desparate to use them up, freezers overflowing, children stuffed, and red-mouthed beyond their desires."

These luscious berries have a 3-day, at-their-best longevity. Looks to me like you may be faced with preparing a cupboardful of jelly!

(BTW, what is the specific variety of your berries? Do they have a high ratio of flesh to seed? Are they all red or are some black? I love the golden yellow ones!)

Edited August 30, 2004 by Redsugar (log)

[snowangel]

Try my Raspberry Pie.

What makes this pie great is that most of the fruit is not cooked, so it maintains that crunch and tartness that makes raspberries so special.

[jackal10]

Put up some jars in alcohol (Rum, brandy or Vodka).

Put the raspberries in canning jars, cover with the spirit, add sugar if you like, and that is it. You get the both the fruit and the drink...

Raspberry vinegar, same but with vinegar

Freeze: spead out on baking paper on a tray and freeze individually, then bag.

[metropastrykid]

i like them with a white chocolate mousse. i've been serving a raspberry sherbet at my restaurant. it's fun. kinda retro.

[Jason Perlow]

Raspberry Jam. Cook it down with some sugar. Might need some pectin added though.

If you've really got a lot, you'll actually want to make preserves by going thru the canning process with sterilized Mason jars. Otherwise just make the jam and eat it out of the fridge.

[Redsugar]

A friend of mine made this iced tea for us to enjoy on the glider-chair in her backyard:

Raspberry Tea

1 cup fresh raspberries

4 Tbsp lemon juice

1½ cups strong English Breakfast tea, chilled

¼ cup fructose

8 ice cubes

Purée raspberries using an immersion blender and strain into a small pitcher in order to remove seeds. Add tea, lemon juice, and sugar. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Add ice cubes & garnish with sprigs of mint. Makes two drinks.

[achevres]

Lee Bailey's Good Parties has a whole section on raspberries. The book is out of print, but available used (cheap) from Amazon. The book is very good and worth getting, even if only for the raspberry recipes. The recipes include syrup, butter (made with butter and soooo good), vinegar, shortcake, chicken, fritters, etc.

But I know you don't have time to wait for the mail right now...I would make raspberry syrup, which you can freeze. The only hard part about it is straining out the seeds. I can PM you the recipe(s?) when I get home (I'm at work). This syrup is great for peach melba and also to take raspberry shortcakes over the top, among other delicious uses.

I also have a fantastic raspberry ice cream recipe from the old Cuisine magazine that I can PM.

[ComeUndone]

How about raspberry clafoutis? Just take your favourite clafoutis recipe and replace the cherries with raspberries.

[pastryelf]

Deborah Madison has a lovely Raspberry Cream tart recipe in the Local Flavors book made with creme fraiche and a very simple crust. Let me know if you'd like me to post it....

www.pastryelf.com

[tanabutler]

Ludja made a raspberry tart for the eGullet mixer in Golden Gate Park on Saturday, and it's getting big praise. She will likely PM you the recipe if you want. I've asked for it, too.

[Flossie]

Raspberry and white chocolate scones.

Eton mess.

Raspberry mousse.

Raspberry ripple ice cream.

[carswell]

A favourite preparation of mine is to put raspberries in individual ramekins, top with Grand Marnier zabaglione and run ramekins under the broiler until the zabaglione begins to brown in spots.

A classic: fill tart or tartelette shells with pastry cream, cover the cream with perfect whole raspberries stem side down, dust with powdered sugar.

Raspberry coulis, raspberry syrup, raspberry vinegar.

[cakewench]

oi. What a great problem to have.

We had the same 'problem' about a month ago. My in-laws have a good amount of raspberry bushes in their yard. We took home two boxes of them.

I froze most of them (the method described above is certainly optimal. With a smaller-than-a-breadbox freezer, though, I just had to take my chances with them in a tupperware bowl. They were fine for my purpose.)

I used them in muffins, and they were great. You can take any standard blueberry muffin and substitute. yum.

We had a LOT of muffins last month.

[ludja]

Ludja made a raspberry tart for the eGullet mixer in Golden Gate Park on Saturday, and it's getting big praise. She will likely PM you the recipe if you want. I've asked for it, too.

I posted my adapted recipe on RecipeGullet here: Fresh Raspberry Creme Fraiche Tart. It uses about 3 cups of berries so I don't know how much of a dent that will make!

As a side note; I adapted it from Patrica Well's Bistro Cooking, a great cookbook. I've made many recipes from it and they are all almost foolproof on the first try.

This recipe sounds similar to the suggestion pastryelf made above from Deborah Madison; another great cookbook author.

[middydd]

I used them in muffins, and they were great. You can take any standard blueberry muffin and substitute. yum.

We had a LOT of muffins last month.

There is an excellent raspberry muffin recipe at this link:

http://labellecuisine.com/archives/fruit/b..._with_fruit.htm

You just have to scroll down the page to "Raspberry Streusel Muffins". They're also good with blueberries.

[Susan G]

For freezing them (if you're tired of making jam) add a cup of sugar to six cups or so or berries...........they're less likely to stick together.

[amyd]

Thank you all for the wonderful suggestions. I've been eating at least a cup of them a day since I first posted. I've got to narrow down the choices of what to try to make this week - it will be really tough!!!

[Sandi Jones]

I have one more post today, I had better take advantage of it!

So, my backyard garden is bursting with fresh raspberries. We've all had our fill of them straight off the bush. I'm freezing some, but do you have a favourite baking/pastry recipe you'd like to share? I have experimented with all sorts of baking styles, and am willing to try just about anything. I am lactose-intolerant (not allergic, but my belly doesn't keep it too long, if you know what I mean), so cheesecake and pudding/creme Anglais type recipes won't do much for me.

Please let me use them up before the wasps eat them all!   

 

[Smithy]

You lucky gal!

1. Sorbet. Note I'm not suggesting sherbet or ice cream, but just sorbet. You can make it with raspberries alone, or in combination with nectarines or peaches, probably other fruit as well.

2. Cook them down and strain them, then season as needed (a bit of sugar, possibly some lemon juice to brighten the flavor) to make a coulis that you can drizzle over cake, fruit salad, chocolate,.... This freezes well, as do the berries themselves. The sauce takes less space, of course. Something like this sauce can also be used to glaze a roast chicken or pork, if you don't overdo it.

3. I'm sure you've thought of jams or jellies, but I'll mention them anyway.

None of these is a baked product as you asked, so I may be way off the mark, but someone else will be along with their favorites. These are mine.

[loki]

If you brew beer or make wine, raspberries are really nice for both.

 

Add them to a good vinegar.  It may be a bit passé but it's nice made yourself.  It'll keep forever - just don't add too many to weaken the vinegar too much.

[CatPoet]

 Saft!   Fruit syrup, you add water too and drink.

 

There is  Tasmanian raspberry chocolate brownies  and  French  chocolate silk pie with raspberries and false  curdcake goes great with  raspberries and also Raspberry liqueur.

 

Raspberry liqueur

400 gram raspberries

300 ml  sugar

500 ml vodka

 

Mix in a big  clean clear glass jar with lid, leave in the window for 4-5 weeks, stir from time to time.  Pour in to clean bottles and  leave in a dark place for 1-4 months.  Before opening and enjoying. 

[Smithy]

Raspberry filling in a chocolate (or chocolate chip) cake is a Good Thing. I imagine the above-mentioned coulis would be excellent on a chocolate pie, if you could come up with a non-dairy pie filling. Dark chocolate and raspberries, mmm.

I wonder if it's possible to make raspberry fruit leather?

[heidih]

_{I do Smithy's suggestion #2 with ephemeral berries like these - gives you so many options for a taste of the bliss when the season is gone. My local "wild" berries are a small blackberry.  I like the sauce swirled into yogurt as breakfast or a snack. If you are a fizzy drink drinker consider a raspberry syrup to flavor soda water on hot days. Grandma stocked the syrup and we enjoyed this back in the day when the seltzer man delivered those gorgeous glass bottles}

Edited July 29, 2014 by heidih (log)

[CatPoet]

Sandi Jones.  I am lactose intolerant too,  but I use lactose free dairy milk and  cream and now  butter for most things.  I  know you have LF  milk  and there should be LF creams in Canada so you can make those you avoid.