When the sun shines and everyone is looking for easy summer food, what could be easier and more delicious, than berry recipes which make the most of summer fruit.
Berries are abundant across British and Irish food; from the earliest spring strawberries, through to autumnal sloes it a pure symphony of colour, taste and texture. Most berries preserve well, either as a whole fruit or in compotes, jams, jellies or preserved in vinegars or alcohol, so summer sunshine is available throughout the year.
This collection of berry recipes will be updated throughout the season, please keep checking back.
1. Fresh Berry Pavlova Recipe
Photo © Elaine Lemm
What could be more evocative of summer than fresh berries, meringue and whipped cream. Delicious and so, so, easy to make.
2. Gooseberry Fool Recipe
Photo © Elaine Lemm
Fat, hairy, tart green gooseberries are transformed into sweetness and light in a Gooseberry Fool recipe. Cooked with a little sugar then stirred into thick, creamy custard and whipped cream delicious.
This recipe for Gooseberry Fool is so quick and easy, it is no wonder it is a favourite summer dessert.
3. Eton Mess Recipe
Photo © RFB photography
Eton Mess is an all-time classic British dessert and an Eton Mess recipe must be included in any list of strawberry recipes. The dish was traditionally served at Eton College but how it came to have the name is not clear. One story is a Labrador dog sat on a picnic basket in the back of a car and squashed a strawberry and meringue dessert.
4. Strawberry Jelly Recipe
Yum, who doesn't love a dish of fresh strawberry jelly. Toped with cream, ice cream, even custard it is the easiest of easy summer foods.
You may want to plan ahead though as the jelly takes a while to set but as it keeps for days in a refrigerator make it when you have the time.
5. Scottish Cranachan with Scottish Raspberries
Scottish Cranachan is a very quick, easy recipe. It is also a very festive recipe and perfect for any celebration especially Christmas, Hogmanay and rounds off a Burns' Night Supper beautifully.
However, Scottish Cranachan is too good though to save just for special occasions and is especially good in the summer making the most of delicious Scottish raspberries for a truly authentic recipe but don't worry if you can't find Scottish, use any raspberries with the wonderful ingredients in the Cranachan it tastes good anyway.
6. Bilberry Pie Recipe
Bilberries are a delicious fruit found growing wild in the north and west of the British Isles on high ground. The season for them is very short between August and September. The raw fruits are a little acidic but when cooked with sugar become a delicious, deep-flavored fruit perfect for pies and for jams.
Bilberry Pie is a classic British pie loved throughout the North of England particularly in Yorkshire. Serve it warm with thick cream or a good vanilla ice-cream - delicious.
7. Berry Sorbet Recipe
Make the most of delicious summer berries with a super, simple and delicious Berry Sorbet. The Berry Sorbet Recipe uses liquid glucose, available from supermarkets or a pharmacy, the liquid glucose helps prevent the sorbet from freezing into a hard, solid mass.
Use any berry -blackberry, strawberry, raspberry or summer currants, blackcurrants are intense in flavor and make a particularly good sorbet. The choice is yours.
8. Blackberry and Apple Pie
A classic dessert or tea time treat has to be an apple pie, but add fresh blackberries to make an Apple and Blackberry pie and you have a winner, a pie filled with the beauty of late summer. Fat blackberries oozing their slightly acidic purple juice into sweet, melting apples and sugar, delicious.
This Blackberry and Apple pie recipe is quick and easy and ensures a perfect result every time. Use cooking or Bramley apples for the best filling, eating apples don't soften the same way and are too sweet. If you don't have any cooking apples to hand then opt for a sharp apple like a granny smith.
9. Mixed Berries - English Summer Pudding Recipe
When there is an abundance of summer berry fruits one of the best ways of serving them is in an English Summer Pudding. A Summer Pudding Recipe is quick, easy and so delicious; all the tastes of summer in one dish.
10. Traditional British Strawberry or Raspberry Trifle
Trifle is the quintessential pudding that has graced British tables for centuries. A traditional British trifle is made using cake, sherry, home-made custard and fruit. Delicious. But you can make a quick, British trifle made using ready-made custard or custard made with custard powder.
