UnRecipe: Chasing Summer's Shadow

Our scale is broken, or needing a battery replacement, and it's probably just as well because I've been on a serious baking/dessert kick, no thanks to the fleeting days of summer. I feel like a bear fattening up for winter, I just need to find a cozy cave to crawl into for the next few months. The balmy sunny season seemed to have made a hasty exit, stage left, but in its wake were some fleeting handfuls of blackberries, which I put to good use. Exit summer, enter Blackberry Clafoutis and Buttermilk Blackberry Ice Cream Float in Lavender Soda.

Clafoutis... Clafoutis Kline... (really bad "Overboard" botched quote) - Photo by Wasabi Prime

I've never made a clafoutis before, but it sounded fancy and I had a recipe lying around from a magazine. It's like a big, fruity souffle you make in a pan, dotted with fresh summer fruit. I should have had more blackberries and a smaller pan, as my clafoutis turned into a skinny, puffy pancake. It was still delicious, don't get me wrong, but it was stretched too thin and more crepe than cake. Dusted with confectioner's sugar, I honestly didn't care, and its thin-ness only served to provide my brain with the unhealthy logic that it's totally okay to eat half of it in one sitting. I will revisit this dessert and improve on technique to make a proper clafoutis, so consider the dessert gauntlet thrown.

The last of the summer berry haul resulted in me and the ice cream machine, yet again. I love homemade ice cream, what can I say? This latest creation had a buttermilk custard churned with cooked down, sweetened blackberries. It all kind of came together tasting of a berry cheesecake, which is never a bad thing. You know what else isn't a bad thing? A big scoop of that ice cream sitting in seltzer water flavored with lavender simple syrup. If that doesn't taste like pure summer I don't know what does! While the last of the blackberries are gone, it's a nice flavor memory to keep around and a nice reminder of what to look forward to next year.

Blackberry mania at Wasabi Kitchen - Photos by Wasabi Prime