Using Blackcurrants
- Thread starter Broch
- Start date
You can, but I found it to be awfully sour. Even though I like sour, I can't eat it. It loses the inherent blackcurrantyness somehow too. It's also very seedy unless you squish and strain, and that's a mess. Do-able though.
It can be sweetened up with sugar, but that kind of defeats the purpose of a healthy snack, I reckon.
It can be sweetened up with sugar, but that kind of defeats the purpose of a healthy snack, I reckon.
There's nothing wrong with sugar when you need the energy to get up that hill - it's those blasted sweeteners I can't stand
I loathe artificial sweeteners. I can taste them for hours afterwards. I had to change my toothpaste to find one that didn't have any of them (Kingfisher, made in the UK ! ) because I could still taste the fake sweet in the morning after brushing my teeth before bed.
If you do sweeten the blackcurrants up, it helps, but it's still kind of tangy. It takes a lot of boiling down though to make a thick enough syrup not to run all over the dehydrator though. I put some on a really good non slip shallow baking tray meant for rising and baking gluten free pizza, and just did it in the oven
It gets guzzled far too quickly though.
) because I could still taste the fake sweet in the morning after brushing my teeth before bed.If you do sweeten the blackcurrants up, it helps, but it's still kind of tangy. It takes a lot of boiling down though to make a thick enough syrup not to run all over the dehydrator though. I put some on a really good non slip shallow baking tray meant for rising and baking gluten free pizza, and just did it in the oven
It gets guzzled far too quickly though.
We get loads of black currants off our bushes, stew them, freeze, and eat with muesli and yoghurt for breakfast in winter. Some do find their way into a cobbler when we have guests. And excess fruit can be stewed, frozen and used like this, its hard to put into words the joy of blackcurrants for breakfast on a crappy winter morning, reminds one that there will be another spring then a summer.
I was given about 10lbs of blackcurrants a few years ago by a neighbour.
Made the usual creme de cassis, pies and then read about making shrub when it was too late as they were all gone!
The following year I made a half gallon of Blackcurrant Shrub and it is delicious.
Equal parts Blackcurrant juice and Cider Vinegar with brown sugar to your own taste. Even if you REALLY like sour you will need some sugar as it helps with the preservation. I use 1 Litre Juice to 1 Litre Cider Vinegar and 500g of Demerara Sugar. Put it all in a preserving pan and bring it to the boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Remove from the heat and leave to cool, then bottle and seal. Put it in a cool dark place and don't touch it for 3 months.
Its delicious mixed with sparkling water as a summer cooler. Also good with Rum and cola and rather weirdly nice with Guinness and Belgian witbiers.
If you've got plenty, its a great way to preserve the sharpness and flavour. Seems to keep almost indefinitely. I'm onto the 2019 vintage now but only just, and there are quite a few bottles left.
Made the usual creme de cassis, pies and then read about making shrub when it was too late as they were all gone!
The following year I made a half gallon of Blackcurrant Shrub and it is delicious.
Equal parts Blackcurrant juice and Cider Vinegar with brown sugar to your own taste. Even if you REALLY like sour you will need some sugar as it helps with the preservation. I use 1 Litre Juice to 1 Litre Cider Vinegar and 500g of Demerara Sugar. Put it all in a preserving pan and bring it to the boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Remove from the heat and leave to cool, then bottle and seal. Put it in a cool dark place and don't touch it for 3 months.
Its delicious mixed with sparkling water as a summer cooler. Also good with Rum and cola and rather weirdly nice with Guinness and Belgian witbiers.
If you've got plenty, its a great way to preserve the sharpness and flavour. Seems to keep almost indefinitely. I'm onto the 2019 vintage now but only just, and there are quite a few bottles left.
I do quite a lot of playing with recipes and suchlike. I did buy (at great cost) some freeze-dried blackcurrants from the company set up by Ferran Adria to make ingredients for his restaurant El Bulli. They were amazing for putting the Blackcurrant flavour into spirits. I made Vodka and Rum with them and also infused some Jagermeister with them which was fantastically good. No one managed to guess what the base spirit was but they all liked the unique taste.
I found a bag of black currants in the back of the freezer. Thawed them out.
Stirred them into a batch of buckwheat pancake batter. They cook on the first side.
Flipped over, they burst and the juice soaks into the pancake. That is good food.
Stirred them into a batch of buckwheat pancake batter. They cook on the first side.
Flipped over, they burst and the juice soaks into the pancake. That is good food.
I like to tip a handful or two of frozen blackcurrants into my morning porridge just before serving. My gf and I got through a full freezer drawer full in a couple of months like this. Supermarket berries just don't have the same punch, sadly.
