Blackberries. I love their sweetness and their tartness.  I grabbed a few packages for a buck at the store last week. And I just had to make some muffins, or are they cupcakes?

I’m not sure what to call them.  Because they really could be both. They are that versatile.

I love how when berries bake, their little juice pods pop and the juice runs all over!  Mmm.

Now scroll through the delicious-ness and then help me figure out where these little goodies belong in the next cookbook!

Ingredients

½ cup butter or margarine, softened ($.80)
½ cup white sugar ($.05)
2 eggs ($.20)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract ($.10)
1 cup milk ($.10)
2 cups white flour ($.40)
1 teaspoon baking soda ($.03)
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups blackberries, halved ($1)
2 Tablespoons lemon juice ($.10)
2 Tablespoons sugar ($.01)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 24 mini-muffin tin with cooking spray.

2. Slice the blackberries in half and place in a bowl with the lemon juice.

3. Add the sugar and toss away. But do so lightly.  You don’t want to hurt the blackberries!

4. Try your best not to eat ‘em up!

5. Prepare the batter in a stand mixer or mixing bowl with hand mixer by beating the butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla and milk until smooth.  Then add the flour, baking soda and salt and beat until smooth, about 2 to 3 minutes. Pour some batter into each of the mini muffin wells.  Fill about 1/4 full.

6. Add 2 blackberry halves to each well.

7. Be sure to not let too much of the liquid from the blackberry bowl get into the batter.  A little is fine.

8. Pour the remaining batter over the top of the blackberries. (I don’t mean to SWAY your  vote, but this batter was VERY much like cake batter!)

9. Fill up the muffins tins.  All the way full is fine!

10. Bake in the preheated oven for 14 to 16 minutes, or until cooked through!

11. Let cool on cooling rack. Enjoy!!!

And now help me decide where to put this recipe in The $5 Dinner Mom’s Breakfast and Lunch Cookbook…

(polls)

Thanks for your help! Y’all are the best!!!

Ingredients

About 3/4 cups blackberry “juice”/puree ($1)
1/2 cup red wine vinegar ($.30)
1/3 cup olive oil ($.60)
1 Tablespoon sugar or desired sweetener ($.01)
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Blend about 1 1/2 cup blackberries until a juice or puree forms.  Pour in 1/4 cup of water while blending if necessary, to form the puree.

Place the pureed blackberries into a strainer and stir around and press until the juice falls through.

And you’re just left with the pulp.

Take the strained juice and add it to a plastic container with lid that you can shake vigorously.  Add the vinegar, olive oil, sweetener and some salt and pepper.

Shake. Vigorously. And then pour.

And enjoy over top of a simple salad.

Makes about 1 1/2 cups of dressing.

Cost $1.91

Robin and Julie from Brilliant Moms is tempting my taste buds this Monday morning! Hope this sweet treat brightens your day!!!

My husband and I recently went blackberry and blueberry picking. We have found that it is much cheaper, and more fun, to go to the field and pick berries than to buy them at the store. When we finished picking this year, we had 12 lbs. of blueberries and 6 lbs. of blackberries!

The first thing we did when we got home was lay the berries out on towels and sort through them for leaves or anything extra in our buckets. We kept some berries out for baking and eating. Then, we put the remaining berries in quart size freezer bags and put them in the freezer. We will be having delicious berry treats for a while!

I made an easy cobbler with some of the blackberries. It was so good that we ate the whole cobbler in one night! At my family’s request, I made the same cobbler the very next night. I’ll share the recipe that was passed down from my mom.

Blackberry Cobbler

Ingredients
1 cup sugar
1 cup self-rising flour
1 cup of milk
3 cups of blackberries, lightly tossed in sugar

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8×8 casserole dish. Combine sugar, flour, and milk in a bowl and pour into the bottom of the casserole dish. Then, pour the blackberries in the middle of the dish on top of the batter. Bake the cobbler for approximately 55 minutes or until it is cooked to your liking.

You can substitute many fruits to this recipe.

We like our cobbler hot with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. I hope you enjoy this easy, cheap, and tasty cobbler recipe.

Julie is a former teacher turned Midwestern Mom. Partnered with her sister-in-law, Robin, she blogs about dedication to family and the importance of using your talents and creativity in everyday life.  Robin is wife to a wonderful husband. They have two toddlers and a baby on the way! Together, Robin and Julie blog about their love for cooking, their families, and their frugal lifestyles at www.brilliantmoms.blogspot.com