Blackberry lemon cornbread

As August progresses, I'm reminded of late summer fishing trips with my dear and much missed Grandfather, one of the very best men I've ever known. We would spend long evenings along the canal near my childhood home, with Grandad happily perched at a peaceful spot, and my brother and I picking blackberries from the bushes laden with fruit along the tow-paths. This is blackberry season, and even if you don't have a ready supply of free blackberries, you can get punnets of this sweet, jewel-like fruit from any supermarket at this time of year.

This recipe is only very slightly adapted from the wonderful Tracy 'Shutterbean' Benjamin's blackberry cornbread, a lady who, let me tell you, provides much of my inspiration for self-improvement. I've directed you to her site before, and I encourage you to take a look around. She herself adapted her version of this recipe from another inspirational lady, the inimitable Rachael Ray.

It is moist, not too sweet, substantial, but not too heavy. You can call it breakfast, elevenses or dessert. It's most delicious straight from the oven!

You may have tried savoury cornbread before, it's a great accompaniment to Mexican, Cuban or Southern food, and the lovely Fatboy makes a mean jalapeno version. It's made using yellow cornmeal, which is readily available in most UK supermarkets these days, look in the Caribbean section if you have no luck in the baking section.

I've listed ingredients here by volume, not weight. If you've never tried measuring this way, I suggest you try it. It is much quicker, and I find it much easier. Most recipes from US and Canadian sources will be given in cups, so it also pays to try measuring in cups to open up a stack of new recipes to you. 1 cup is equal to approximately 250ml, but it's also used for measuring dry ingredients like flour and sugar. The reason I suggest trying it is that it can be quite tiresome to convert cups to weight measurements, because the conversion depends on the type of dry ingredient. 1 cup of flour does not weigh the same as 1 cup of say, oats, for example. My boyfriend's lovely Mom gave me this beautiful set of measuring cups last Christmas, but if you already have a 250ml measuring cup, you're good to go.

Aren't they just SO pretty?

Ingredients:

• 1 cup coarse yellow cornmeal
• 1 cup flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup sugar, plus extra for topping
• 3/4 cup buttermilk, or sour cream if you struggle to find buttermilk
• 2 eggs
• 7 tbsp butter, melted (unsalted is best for baking)
• 1 to 1 and 1/2 cups blackberries, depending on size and personal preference
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• Juice and zest of 1/2 a lemon

Preheat your oven to 190 degrees C, and grease a small baking dish (around 8 inches will be best, although mine is a little bigger). In a large mixing bowl whisk together the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk the buttermilk or soured cream, eggs and butter until thoroughly combined. It is important to make sure that your melted butter has had time to cool, so that it doesn't begin to cook the eggs before time:

Stir the wet mix into the dry. Once completely combined, add the lemon juice and zest, and vanilla extract and gently stir through the mixture.

Pour the batter into the baking dish and spread to fill the corners. You will find that it is quite a thick batter. Press your blackberries into the batter, and then sprinkle generously with sugar:

Bake for 25 minutes or until the bread springs back when pressed. Allow to cool for ten minutes in the tin before serving, with a cup of tea, back in bed: