Boysenberries — season, tips, and recipes in Australia
Boysenberries is a fruit available in Queensland during December, January, February, peaking in January. This page is a practical guide for home cooks: when to buy boysenberries, how to pick a good one, how to store it, what it goes well with, three original recipes, and detailed nutrition information.
A cross between raspberry, blackberry, and loganberry. Grown mainly in Tasmania and Victoria. Less common than in New Zealand but worth seeking out at farmers' markets.
How to pick a good one
Deep purple-black, plump and soft. Extremely delicate, handle gently. Check bottom of punnet.
How to store it
Eat the day you buy them. Fridge for a day at most. Freeze well.
Goes well with
vanilla: Boysenberry's intense dark-fruit flavour -- deeper and more complex than raspberry or blackberry -- is lifted by vanilla's warmth. The combination appears in most good boysenberry desserts.
cream: As with raspberries, fat carries the berry's aroma. Boysenberries with cream taste more intensely of boysenberry than boysenberries alone. The colour is also extraordinary.
lemon: Boysenberry's richness benefits from acid to brighten it. Lemon sharpens the flavour without competing with the berry's complexity.
dark chocolate: Boysenberry is dark and complex enough to hold up to chocolate. The combination is less about contrast and more about finding two things at a similar point on the richness spectrum.
Recipes
Boysenberry Fool
Same as raspberry fool but better.
Ingredients: 200g boysenberries, 250ml cream, 2 tbsp sugar, 1 tsp vanilla
Method: Mash half the berries. Whip cream with sugar and vanilla. Fold in mashed and whole berries. Spoon into glasses.
Boysenberry Crumble
Use any crumble recipe, sub boysenberries.
Ingredients: 300g boysenberries, 2 tbsp sugar, 80g oats, 60g flour, 60g brown sugar, 50g cold butter
Method: Toss berries with sugar in dish. Rub oats, flour, sugar, butter until crumbly. Top. Bake 180C for 25 min.
Boysenberry Ice Cream Sauce
Over vanilla ice cream. That's all you need.
Ingredients: 200g boysenberries, 3 tbsp sugar, squeeze lemon
Method: Simmer everything 5 minutes. Mash lightly with a fork. Serve warm or cold over ice cream.
Nutrition
One cup provides over 50% of your daily vitamin C and 35% of your manganese. Very high in anthocyanins (the dark purple pigments). Good source of folate and fibre. About 66 calories per cup. The deep colour means very high antioxidant content.