Boysenberries four ways
A boysenberry is too soft to travel, which is why it is rare at retail and why picking your own is worth the drive. It is also intensely flavoured, more wine-like than a raspberry, and it takes sugar and cream better than almost any other berry.
Start by sorting. Anything squashed goes in the jam pot, the perfect ones go in the fool, and the rest freeze on a tray for later.
Boysenberry jam
Ingredients: 1 kg boysenberries, 800 g sugar, juice of 1 lemon.
Method: Put the berries in a wide heavy pan with the lemon juice and warm gently until they collapse, about ten minutes. Add the sugar off the heat and stir until it has fully dissolved before returning to the boil. Boil hard for eight to twelve minutes, then test on a cold saucer: push the blob with a finger and it should wrinkle.
Boysenberries are low in pectin, so this jam sets soft. That is correct rather than a failure, and it is better on a scone for it. Pot into hot sterilised jars and seal.
Boysenberry coulis
Ingredients: 300 g boysenberries, 3 tbsp icing sugar, a squeeze of lemon.
Method: Blitz everything, then push it through a sieve to take out the seeds. That is all. It keeps four days in the fridge and freezes in ice-cube trays. Over vanilla ice cream, a plain cheesecake or a pavlova, it is the single best use of the fruit.
Boysenberry and apple crumble
Ingredients: 500 g boysenberries, 2 apples, 100 g sugar. Topping: 150 g flour, 100 g cold butter, 80 g brown sugar, 50 g rolled oats.
Method: Peel and slice the apples, mix with the berries and sugar, and put in a dish. The apple matters, because boysenberries on their own flood a crumble. Rub the butter into the flour, stir in the sugar and oats, scatter over without pressing down. Bake at 180C for 35 to 40 minutes until the juices come up dark at the edges.
Boysenberry fool
Ingredients: 300 ml cream, 250 g boysenberries, 2 tbsp sugar, a spoon of Greek yoghurt.
Method: Crush half the berries with the sugar and leave for ten minutes. Whip the cream to soft peaks, fold in the yoghurt, then fold the crushed berries through in two or three strokes only, so it stays streaked rather than uniformly pink. Fold the whole berries in last. Chill an hour.
Updated 10 September 2026