After so many of you left comments about Blackberry Dumplings I decided I had to give them a try. I thought “If that many people remember them from childhood I bet my favorite Appalachian cookbook-More Than Moonshine by Sydney Saylor Farr will have a recipe for Blackberry Dumplings.” My thinking was right.
Sydney Saylor Farr’s Blackberry Dumplings
- 1 quart blackberries
- 1/2 cup hot water (*Needs more-see not below)
- 1 cup sugar
- dash of salt
- 2 cups sifted flour
- 4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup milk
Mix blackberries, hot water, salt (dash), and sugar (1 cup) in a large pot with a tight fitting lid until the mixture begans to boil. Reduce heat and cook blackberries until tender (I cooked mine about 15 minutes). *After making this recipe a few times I think you need way more water to ensure your dumplings don’t cook into a solid mass. I add enough water to completely cover the blackberries and if a lot of it cooks out I add more water before dropping dumplings.
Sift together flour, baking powder, sugar (1 tablespoon), and salt (1/2 teaspoon). Pour milk in and stir to make a dough.
Drop dough by heaping tablespoons into simmering blackberries. Cover pot tightly and reduce to low heat. Cook for 15 to 20 minutes or until dumplings are done. Serve with cream.
After eating a big bowl of blackberry dumplings with a glass of cold milk-I can surely see why so many of you commented about the fond memories of eating Blackberry Dumplings as a child.
Tipper
I’m with Cousin Ed in favor of the thickened Black Berries with the exception, I prefer my Lairipins hot with butter stirred in and served over hot Biscuits.
Tipper, I have been out of pocket a few days and missed all the Blackberry Dumplin’ flurry. Great to see and know how this all turned out. I love it. It makes me miss my Granny!!
Steve-great question! One tablespoon goes into the dumpling mixture. I went back and edited the recipe to show the sugar amounts. Sorry I missed that the first time!
Tipper
Blind Pig The Acorn
Celebrating and Preserving the
Culture of Appalachia
http://www.blindpigandtheacorn.com
On Tuesday, August 5, 2014 11:40 AM,
Mmm-Mmm I sure do love blackberries!
This looks and sounds wonderful!
I will certainly be trying this. I said I was not going to buy anymore cookbooks (I am addicted to Pinterest and have pinned SO MANY recipes)but I may just have to get the one you mentioned.
Pam
I know of Sydney Saylor Farr as once being the editor of Appalachian Heritage Literary Journal. I didn’t know she had written a cook book. I think I’d like it, but Lord, I don’t know where I’d put one more book in my house.
I’d love to find some wild blackberries. I’d make me some dumplins and blackberries, for sure.
Tipper,
and Jim…I have the book “Smokehouse Ham, Spoon bread and Scuppernong Wine,” You are right it is a good’en! That’s the way I like to read the stories of the recipe. Where it was first eaten by the author and what area of the country it was found. Such fun interesting reading.
I sold all my Candlewick stems just after setting them on the table. Also got rid of an old storage/closet cabinet that was getting in my way. We are back tonight to hunt for a Candlewick Cake plate the lady wants to buy. I am sure I have one here somewhere. LOL Promised her I would look for it!
You’all need to come to the 127 Worlds Longest Yard Sale.. Someone will be by soon with fried (dried) Apple Pies in day or two. Usually the Mennonites from Muddy Pond show up with their fresh jellies, jams, honey and breads…
Later,
I took the blueberries out of the freezer!
Thanks Tipper,
Tipper, wanted to add. I jumped on Amazon and ordered that book More Than Moonshine. They had new and used versions–you need to hook up with them and make a commission. Everybody wants the books you use…just a thought.
Shucks, I was canning tomatoes and missed The Blind Pig this morning. When I can I have to hit the floor canning, as day already usually packed.
I just got blackberries from a kind relative, froze them, and had pictures of all sorts of blackberry treats fluttering through my head. I fixed a blackberry cobbler the day he brought them, and everybody was scraping the baking dish. I thickened the berries with corn starch and sugar, and then poured them over the old recipe of 1 c flour, 1 c milk, 1 c sugar, and bathed it in butter. I will have to add this dumpling recipe–may try it with tomatoes also. I must say, you certainly do inspire us to keep cooking that country food.
I like blackberry dumplings but I druther have them thickened. Just cook the blackberries and sugar and make a slurry of milk and flour to stir into the mixture. It is good hot but I prefer to let it get cold and set up. It turns into something like a custard or pudding.
Tipper,
Like you, I’m blessed with lots of wild blackberries. I picked several containers for the freezer just standing at the edge of my lawn. I love blackberries! They’re right
in there with wild strawberries,
but I’ve never had anything like
this cooked on top of the stove.
I do make chicken n’ dumplings all the time tho. Your blackberry
dumplings look great…Ken
How much sugar goes in with the flour for the dumpling mixture? THANKS!
Tipper–This recipe would also work with dewberries, raspberries, huckleberries,or wild strawberries (and probably even with elderberries). Ann and I have a quite similar dumpling recipe in one of our cookbooks, “Wild Bounty,” with the biggest difference being that we use two teaspoons of baking powder in making the dumplings.
I’ll disagree with you a bit on favorite Appalachian cookbooks, or maybe just introduce you and your readers to another truly excellent one. I particularly like it because there is considerable narrative material along with the recipes. It is Joseph Dabney’s “Smokehouse Ham, Spoon Bread, and Scuppernong Wine.” If you aren’t familiar with it, I can’t recommend it too highly (and that comes from a household which probably owns 750-1,000 cookbooks) as well as one where seven or eight have been written.
Jim Casada
http://www.jimcasadaoutdoors.com
I am heading to the book store now!
Thinking about Belva’s response: Instead of rolling my dumpling dough when I make chicken and dumplings, I make the dough the consistency of drop biscuits, keep a bowl of cold water close by and between each small lime sized handful of dough I wet my hands, give the dough a light roll in in my hands to make a soft ball, then drop the ball into the stew. I imagine that same method would work for these luscious looking blackberries. Does anyone else hand ball their dough?
My wife makes this for me with blackberries or blueberries and calls it cobbler. She just pours the batter over the berries and bakes it.
She doesn’t make it often enough to suit me, but maybe if she did I wouldn’t consider it a treat.
Instead of Miss Cindy’s dollop of butter I like mine with a scoop of ice cream.
Dolores-I think blueberries would be just as yummy!
Blind Pig The Acorn
Celebrating and Preserving the
Culture of Appalachia
http://www.blindpigandtheacorn.com
Blackberry Dumplings sound marvelous. I need to try them. I also need to find a copy of “More Than Moonshine.” My Aunt Elizabeth canned blackberries. They are a fave of mine to where I used to eat them out of the jar from a bowl. Mama had to scramble to have enough for cobbler. When my daughter asks what I want for my birthday cake, I always request blackberry cobbler.
Tipper,
Those blackberry dumplings look so good this morning! This is my husband’s favorite dessert. The only thing that we do a little different is that we make our dough a little thicker and roll our dumplings out thin and drop them into the simmering berries. Gonna have to make my husband some of these this weekend!
This looks so good. I would love to try these. I guess that blackberry season might be almost over, but maybe one could try blueberries. You have made be hungry.
Tipper,
My blackberries are gone and no I didn’t get any in the freezer. so I think one could use blueberries as well.
I’ll take mine with a dollop of whipped cream or ice cream beside!
It’s back to the plateau to finish setting up for The Worlds Longest Yard Sale. Got all the tables covered and display cabinets set yesterday. Unwrapping and putting out “stuff”, glass, pottery, etc. today. We did drive up the road a ways, on the way home yesterday. Found a lady selling “vintage/old aprons” and “chenille (peacock design) bedspreads. Just hanging in the breeze like in the old days. She also had some vintage tablecloths…
I didn’t see any Blackberry dumpling stains…LOL
Tipper, thanks for the recipe,
I have the book, but now don’t have to go and look it up!
Miss Cindy- YES I will : )
Blind Pig The Acorn
Celebrating and Preserving the
Culture of Appalachia
http://www.blindpigandtheacorn.com
Tipper when are they going to be ready and have you got plenty of ice cream or should I bring a gallon or two !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
grandpa Ken
Tip, I’ve never heard of blackberry dumplings. They sound and look wonderful! I’d probably want a dollop of butter on tip of mine.
Will you make it for me sometime?
Thanks to you, Tipper, for telling us a few years back about Sydney Saylor Farr’s “More Than Moonshine,” my dear hubby bought me the book. I hadn’t tried the Blackberry Dumplings yet, either, but you can bet your boots I will be now. My mouth’s watering like crazy!