Black Currant Coffee Cake (and Syrup)

Okay, so today, on the way home from my contract-job, I stopped and picked about two cups of black currants off a wayside bush that I discovered last weekend. The upshot of this is that I now have about 1½ cups (in a pint jar) of black currant syrup cooling (after processing) on my counter AND about a quarter cup (maybe a third of a cup?) of black currant pulp (and tiny, tiny, crunchy seeds) left over from getting the juice out of the berries to begin with.
Now, while some fruits might become kind of bland and bitter and gross after you’ve leached the juice out of them (I admit I’m theorizing here, and thinking mostly of apples and pears), black currants are (a) kind of bitter – along with very sour – to begin with, and (b) have Flavour to spare, even after being boiled for an hour and then smushed into something resembling paté (at least if paté were maroon).
Readers, I did not want to just chuck the maroon paté into the compost bin with the stems and leaves and such-like.
So I cooked up (literally – ahaha) the following coffee cake to put it to use. I’ll know if it’s any good in about 30-45 minutes (here’s hoping).
 
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Black Currant Coffee Cake
 
INGREDIENTS
½ C whole wheat pastry flour
½ C polished wheat (white) all-purpose flour
½ C ground almonds
1 C granulated sugar
1 tbsp cassonade (maple sugar)
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
Pinch Salt
¼ C mashed black currant pulp
1 egg
½ C oil, scant (think “minus one tablespoon” when measuring)
½ C plain yoghurt
1 tsp vanilla extract
 
DIRECTIONS
Mix everything together in a big bowl
Bake in a greased pan at 350F for an hour (or until it smells done)
Allow to cool
Serve with fruit preserves, vanilla yoghurt, Black Raspberry Thunder ice cream, whipped cream, or whatever suits your fancy
 
 
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Anyway, that was my adventure today. 🙂
 
 
TTFN,
Meliad the Birch Maiden.