Blackberry Purée

Bev Amoth

Bev's three-ingredient purée—blackberries, sugar, lemon—for the Highlander and beyond.

Ingredients

4 cups blackberries
¾ cup sugar, or to taste (berry-dependent—see note)
1 tbsp lemon juice

Method

Combine the blackberries, sugar, and lemon juice in a large pot (or, for a big batch, a wide, heavy-bottomed pan—more surface area cooks off water faster). Cook over low-medium heat until the berries are soft and burst easily, mashing them as they go to release the juice—heating pulls far more juice out of the berries than working them raw. About 15 minutes.
Strain out the seeds one of two ways: press the cooked berries through a wire-mesh sieve with the back of a spoon (reserve the liquid, discard the seeds and pulp), or run them through a deseeder.
Return the strained purée to the same pot or pan and simmer on low-medium, tasting and adding more sugar as needed, until it thickens and reduces by about a quarter to a third. Cool before using or freezing.

Sugar is berry-dependent. Wild or small, dense blackberries need only ¼–½ cup; large, water-heavy supermarket berries need about ¾ cup or more per 4 cups. Add the sugar while cooking rather than after, taste as it reduces, and don't be shy—under-sugared purée stays thin and won't thicken. A large batch reduces faster and more evenly in a wide, heavy-bottomed pan; a normal 4-cup batch is fine in any large pot. (Bev's batch of ~36 cups of water-heavy berries took 6–7 cups of sugar, cooked in a wide pan.)

Note. Freeze extra purée in a small silicone ice tray. Each cube is about 1 oz; thaw one before adding it to the shaker.