Quick and Easy Recipes Using Frozen Berries

I nearly always have frozen berries in my freezer, whether they are foraged berries I've gathered over the summer, or bought on offer at the supermarket.  They are SO versatile and useful for adding fruit to baking, making breakfast a little more interesting, or for whipping up a quick dessert.  I've also discovered that if you add frozen berries to low fat yoghurt and stir them in well, it freezes the yoghurt and coats the berries making it taste like icecream.  A fab low fat and tasty dessert, without the guilt.  If however you want something a little more decadent and comforting, I've included my favourite dessert recipes using frozen berries below.

Mixed Berry Compote

500g frozen mixed berries

1/4 cup caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Put the berries and sugar in a saucepan over low heat. Stir to combine thoroughly.  Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes or until the berries have just softened. Remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in vanilla extract. Cool completely. Serve with pancakes, eggy bread, crumpets or porridge. Stir through plain yoghurt for a tasty and relatively healthy snack.  You can also use this compote cold to pour over a pavlova/meringues or to make turnovers, see recipe below.

Super Quick Berry Turnovers

4 sheets ready-rolled puff pastry, partially thawed

2 cups berry compote (thicken with a little cornflour and water if too runny)

2 Tblsp demerara/raw sugar

1 Tblsp milk

Preheat oven to 200°C.  Line 2 baking trays with baking paper. If you can be bothered, use a plate as a template and cut two 14cm circles from each pastry sheet.  If not, then cut each sheet of pastry in half and use those for rectangular turnovers.

Put 1/4 cup of compote over 1 half of each pastry circle/rectangle, leaving a 1cm border. Fold over the other half of the pastry to enclose the filling. Press around the edges with a fork to seal the turnovers and then put them on the lined baking trays.

Again, if you can be bothered, brush some milk over the tops of the turnovers and sprinkle with a little raw sugar.  Bake for 10 minutes, swap trays around in the oven, then bake for another 10 minutes or until the pastry is all puffed and golden.  Transfer to a wire rack to cool for a few minutes, then serve.  We have ours with icecream or custard.  The leftover turnovers, if there are any, make a great lunchbox treat.

Berry Crumble

500g mixed frozen berries

1/4 cup caster sugar

Topping

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup self-raising flour

1/3 cup rolled oats

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

60g butter, diced or grated

Preheat oven to 180°C. Lightly grease a 1 litre capacity ovenproof  dish.

To make the crumble topping combine sugar, flour, oats and cinnamon in a bowl. Rub the in butter until totally combined.  If you grate the butter in to the bowl, this process takes next to no time at all.

Mix the berries and sugar together thoroughly in a bowl then put them in the bottom of the ovenproof dish.  Evenly sprinkle the crumble mixture over the top.  Put the overnproof dish in to the oven, on a baking tray, and bake for about half an hour or until the crumble topping is golden. Serve with ice-cream and/or custard.

Leftover crumble makes a fab lunchbox treat, especially for grown ups with access to a microwave and a small pot of custard.  Not that I'm admitting to anything! LOL