It’s berry season – and time to make berry desserts. I recently came across a recipe in a hundred-year-old cookbook for Blackberry Roly Poly and decided to give it a try. Rectangles of pastry are topped with a sauce made from fresh blackberries, and then rolled and baked. The roly polys are served hot, smothered in additional raspberry sauce.
The BlackBerry Roly Polys were delightful. The pastry was flaky and lovely with the embedded blackberry sauce and topping.
Here’s the recipe updated for modern cooks:
Blackberry Roly Poly
2 pints blackberries
1/2 cup water +1/2 cup water
1 1/2 cups sugar + additional sugar
3 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup shortening
1 egg, separated (lightly beat, separately, the yolk and white)
Put the blackberries in a saucepan and add 1/2 cup water. Using medium heat, bring to a boil. Then reduce heat and simmer until the berries are very soft; stir periodically. Remove from the heat and press the cooked berries through a sieve. (I used a Foley mill.) Rinse out the saucepan, then put the strained pulp back into the pan. Stir in 1 1/2 cups sugar. Bring to a boil using medium heat, then reduce heat and simmer until the sauce thickens while stirring periodically (about 20-30 minutes). Remove from heat and cool.
In the meantime, Preheat oven to 425°. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt, then cut in the shortening. Add beaten egg yolk and 1/2 cup water; mix using a fork until dough starts to cling together. If needed, add additional water. (If desired, a food processor can be used to make the dough.) Knead dough slightly then roll part of the dough into a rectangle 1/4 inch thick. Cut into small rectangles each about 4″ by 2″. Spread the cooled blackberry sauce onto the small rectangles, and then roll. (Reserve about a quarter of the sauce to use when serving.) Put on a baking sheet. Brush with egg white, then generously sprinkle with sugar. Bake until lightly browned (about 1/2 hour).
Serve hot with the reserved blackberry syrup that has been reheated .
This sounds like a marvelous recipe, but it’s so much easier to eat the blackberries and have no berries left to cook with.
I had to chuckle, Anne. I was thinking yummy, but I wouldn’t want to work that hard! A cobbler, yes!
Fresh berries are the best! But, this recipe is very good if there happen to be any extras. 🙂
It would be a great recipe to use if you’ve been berry picking and need to use them up quickly.
So true! When I was a kid, I would come in with blackberry stained hands and mouth and a few berries in the bucket.
This looks good, but we’re at least 6 weeks from blackberry season here, so it’ll have to wait a bit.
To be totally honest, I bought the blackberries at the store. They were on sale and looked excellent, so I just couldn’t resist. Local ones should be available in a few weeks.
Never heard of this before, but it looks delightful! Thanks for this one!
It’s yummy.
It looks delicious 😋
I looked up the term roly poly -This version involving jam and pastry comes from the British.
I found this website that wrote about several other types of roly pollies I found interesting
https://arnoldzwicky.org/2015/05/05/roly-polies/
cheers
Roly Poly always makes me think of Wade Ray singing that song on The Ernest Tubb Show in the 60s.
I googled the song – and didn’t come up with the Wade Ray version – but did find a video with Kenny Price singing it:
“https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x77aflf
Thanks for sharing the link. It’s fascinating how many different things in addition to a food that roly poly can refer to. I never knew that there was a type of bug (I think it’s a bug – maybe it’s some other kind of invertebrate) called a roly poly.
They look delicious! Reminded me of the Roly Polly Pudding story.
I wasn’t familiar with this story, so googled it, and was pleased to find that it is available via Wikisource.
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Roly-Poly_Pudding
It was fun to read this Beatrix Potter book.
Roly Poly are new to us. They look delicious! Thanks for sharing.
They’re tasty.
these sound marvellous!
They’re delicious.
I do believe this is the precursor to the pop-tart!!
LOL – what a fun comparison. Roly Polys are much better than pop tarts. 🙂
These look SO tasty!
This looks like a fun recipe. I’ll bet it would be delicious with other types of berries as well.
Agree – this recipe would also work well with other berries.
I will soon be gathering with my husband’s family at their summer farmhouse. I have fond memories of Grandma Nancy making Blackberry Roly Poly with the blackberries we’d just picked in the farmyard. I am hoping to recreate the dessert this weekend when my husband’s siblings gather. Sadly Grandma Nancy is gone. We will remember her as we enjoy our dessert.
It’s nice to hear that this post brings back some wonderful memories of you grandmother. Enjoy the Blackberry Roly Poly and the memories of her. Fingers crossed that this recipe is very similar to hers.