The Event ~ Making Blackberry Dumplings

Blackberries are a treat here in western Nebraska.  I don't really know if they actually are available or grow anywhere else, unless someone elsewhere is given seed from a blackberry harvest.  They are not the dime-size bumpy blackberries you buy in the store.  These are round little pea-size fruits, and it takes a long time to pick them and a whole lot to make something. 

Now I have several bags of blackberries hoarded in my freezer from the last two summer crops.  I never seem to get around to using them.  I only use them for dumplings and for dinna kuchen.  In anticipation of all the kids being home for Christmas I spent an evening making blackberry dumplings, but freezing them before cooking them and having them ready to go for a Friday nite meal when they all get here.  So now all I have to do is cook them.  Tra-la-  dumplings on the table.  What a good mom!  But no one adult can pig out on them as I only made 33 of them for for the 15 of us who will be here to eat them.  Bad mom (should have made more!) 

THE RECIPE:

The dough:  Beat together, preferably with a dough hook, 2 eggs, 1/3 cup water, 2 cups flour, 1 tsp salt  until a nice soft dough is formed.  Roll out to about 1/8" thick.  Cut into 4" squares (more or less). 

The filling:  Coat about five cups more or less of partially frozen blackberries with about a cup of flour and 3/4 cup of sugar (each more or less). 

Using a large cookie scoop, put 1/2 cup (more or less)  on a square, pull up the corners and pinch together, making sure the seams do not separate.

Drop a few dumplings in pot of boiling water and cook for 2-4 minutes (more or less) and remove from water with a slotted spoon.  Put into large flat bowl (something with alot of bottom surface so the dumplings don't have to be piled on top of each other).  The dumplings will begin to be layered very carefully.  Pour warm cream over all and top with toasted bread cubes.

To make toasted bread cubes, I melt butter in the oven on a cookie sheet and spread cubed bread over the butter and mix and coat evenly and let toast to golden brown in the oven.  Watch carefully as they can burn quite fast.  I know, I usually burn them!

Sitting down to a meal of blackberry dumplings is a treat, a real eventful dining experience.

The Event ~ It's a Black and White Tradition!

Looking ahead to hosting Christmas this year, I know we MUST have the traditional black and white fudge.  This is a sweet treat I grew up with.  My mom made it every year for years that I can remember growing up.  I'm not sure where she got the original recipe, but it was one of those recipes that has to be passed down through the generations.   A Christmas tradition for sure.  I know she still makes a batch of it each year.

I remember for several years I couldn't get it quite right.  Then I discovered I was not beating it good after taking it off the heat and before putting it in the pan.  Sometimes the atmospheric pressure also plays a part in how certain foods turn out, including fudge and candies of any kind. 

This fudge is awesome, and so-o-o bad for you!  But so-o-o- good!  It's hard not to just keep eating piece after piece after piece!  So I've got a container of five dozen pieces in the freezer waiting to put out on Christmas Eve.  With 26 people around, that's like only two pieces each.  Maybe we can hide it from the little kids!!  My mouth is watering as I write this.  Do I need to make more???  This is worth coming home for, isn't it???

The Recipe:

Black Fudge:  Combine in 3 qt kettle:  3 cups sugar, 1 ½ Tble white syrup, 1 ½ cups cream,   4 Tble cocoa.  Cook to softball stage.   Remove from heat.  Add:  1 Tble butter, 1  Tble vanilla, ¾ cup nuts. Do NOT overcook beyond soft ball.   Beat with electric mixer until creamy,  1 1/2  -  2 1/2  minutes.  Pour into well-buttered 9 x 13 pan.

White Fudge: Repeat the same as Black Fudge, but omit the cocoa.  (I cook the white fudge a couple degrees longer than the black fudge because it tends to be softer without the cocoa).    Pour on top of black fudge. 

Without a candy thermometer you will know when soft ball stage is reached when a  drop of mixture dropped into a small bowl of cold water can be shaped into a ball with your fingers.

Keeping simple family traditions alive is an event worthy of keeping alive through generations.  Black and white fudge and lefsa are two traditions that I hope can be passed on for generations to come.