Whether you’re making a berry tart, pie, or parfait, you’re gonna have to know what ingredients and flavors you should mix with the berries to enhance your dish.
There are several recipes you can make with berries, which is why for simplicity’s sake we will focus on using berries for desserts — your sweet tooth won’t object.
What’s really great about berries is they don’t specifically have separate food profiles. For example, lemon juice wouldn’t be a ingredient for strawberries if it didn’t also work with raspberries. All types of berries share a common characteristics and therefore a shared food profile with ingredients that could be incorporated into all of them.
Let’s look at three common recipes — mixed berry pie, blueberry strudel filling, and raspberry fools.
Berry Pie
A berry pie filling (and when I say ‘berry pie,’ I mean a assortment of berries in the filling), is one of the easiest and quickest things you could whip up. Simply combine lemon juice, powdered and granulated sugar, vanilla, and cornstarch with a pound of assorted berries — I recommend blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries.
From there, pour the berries into a prepare pie crust, bake, and enjoy.
Blueberry Strudel Filling
If you’re making strudel, you need the filling to be soft and moist so that when you bite into it, it will be like chocolate melting in your mouth. This is similar to how you would cook apples down to soften them and render a gooey cinnamon syrup/sauce from them.
In a saucepan over medium heat, add about 3/4 cup water, a pound of blueberries, and some sugar. Once the mixture begins to cook (make sure it doesn’t boil!), combine cornstarch with a little bit of water to create a slurry.
A slurry is a combination of cornstarch or water that creates a thick, paste-like liquid used to thicken soups or sauces.
While stirring the berry mixture over heat, stir in the cornstarch mix for a good minute — don’t let it stand still!
Take the pan off of heat and rest for 5 minutes until the mixture cools. The water and juices from the berry should thicken by the time it cools. Your filling is now ready to be incorporated in a delicious strudel or any other dessert you want to try the filling with.
Raspberry Fools
Beat a cup of heavy cream on high in a stand mixer with a whisk attachment. Once whipped cream has formed, add 1/3 cup of sour cream and whip for another 10 second. Set aside.
Combine 3/4 cup raspberries, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, and 2 tablespoons powdered sugar. Divide whipped cream mixture into five bowls and add a generous serving (a tablespoon or two) of the raspberry mix on top of the cream. Serve and enjoy!
It’s important to note:
If you are ever making a dessert that requires a berry filling or mix that needs to be baked, always use cornstarch!
If you go ahead and just throw berries into puff pastry, roll it up and bake it, or fill a prepared pie crust with berries without cornstarch, you would create a mess, since cornstarch is necessary to create the right consistency of the filling. Berries tend to release a lot of juices when exposed to heat (like in an oven), so cornstarch thickens those juices and keeps everything inside the pastry — not leaking all over the place if you even have a tiny hole.
Unless berries are used as a topping or lone ingredient, such as drizzling blueberries on a pancake while it’s cooking or stirring them into a muffin batter, cornstarch isn’t necessary.
The great thing about knowing this food profile is that the next time you’re making tarts, strudels, pie or any kind of pastry that required berries, you don’t even need a recipe anymore! You now know you could just toss some cornstarch, lemon juice, and sugar and you will get the same results any specific recipe would give.
Here’s a recipe for mini berry pies.
Mini Berry pies
Berry filling:
- 1 pound assorted berries
- 1 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoons corn starch
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
- 2 sheets prepared pie crust (chilled)
- All-purpose flour for dusting
- 1 egg yolk
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
Combine berries with all ingredients (except flour and crust) and set aside. Roll out chilled and prepared pie crust so it fits into a 9 by 9 inch pie pan. Poke small holes on the bottom of the crust with a fork. Pour berry filling into pie crust and roll out a second sheet of pie crust on top of the berries. Crimp the edges with a fork to seal.
Using a paring knife, make three small slits or an “X” on top of the pie crust so the hot air will be able to ventilate out of the pie when baking. Whisk one egg yolk with a little bit of water and brush the top of the pie with the egg wash.
Bake in your preheated oven for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown and enjoy.
