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By the time he died a century ago, the green wizard called Luther Burbank had invented more than 800 new plant varieties, self-published a 12-volume set of his methods and discoveries and even helped end the Irish potato famine, yet he will always be known in these parts as “that [expletive] who introduced the Himalayan blackberry.”

Learn more about blackberries in this Superabundant feature

It took him more than 30 years, but by 1920 Burbank finally got his white whale: A thornless blackberry variety developed using germplasm from wild evergreen blackberry and trailing blackberry — two Northwest native species still used in crop breeding today.

Probably coincidentally, a wild mutant was discovered in Oregon the same year that Burbank died. Horticulturists applied their breeding efforts to the new “Thornless Evergreen,” and five years later achieved a productive and totally thornless loganberry like the one I grow in my own garden today.

This week’s recipe comes from “The Neighborhood Cook Book,” published in 1912 by the Council of Jewish Women in Portland, but it’s not actually the book’s blackberry dumpling recipe, which, besides being too sweet and kind of fussy to prepare (the dumplings are steamed in individual cups), uses only a cup or so of blackberries.

I prefer the loganberry dumplings recipe, which is what I’ve adapted here — it uses a whole quart of fruit (great for people with a lot of berries hogging freezer space) and unlike with baking or jam-making, you get to decide how much sugar to use without ending up with complete garbage. I updated the dumpling recipe slightly by adding sugar and nutmeg for flavor and tenderness, and giving a measurement for the milk more specific than “enough.”

Loganberries had been in cultivation in Oregon for about a decade when the cookbook launched (and marionberries were still another 40 years away from invention), but any type of blackberry or raspberry would do here. This is an ideal use for any type of frozen berries, which is what happens to the vast majority of Oregon-grown berries.

As always, please remember that the only difference between a breakfast pastry and a dessert pastry is how fermented the dairy topping is — a scoop of Greek yogurt (breakfast!) or vanilla ice cream (dessert!) are as suitable here as the suggested whipped cream. Serves 6-8

Note: You’ll want to adjust the sugar if you’re using berries packed in syrup, but otherwise this is an ideal use for canned fruit, which was novel and trendy back in the 1910s. Feel free to play with the flavor here to make it your own — lemon zest, cinnamon and/or a few drops of almond extract are all lovely with the fragrance of blackberries.

Ingredients

4 cups fresh, frozen or canned blackberries (see note)

1 ⅓ cup sugar, divided

2 cups flour

½ teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

A pinch of nutmeg

1 egg

¾ cup milk

Whipped cream (or vanilla ice cream or Greek yogurt) for serving

Instructions

1. Bring the berries to a low boil in a medium-sized pot over medium heat, then add 1 cup of the sugar (and any other flavorings or spices) and stir until dissolved. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer until the fruit has begun to soften, about 6-8 minutes.
2. Mix the flour, remaining sugar, salt, baking powder and nutmeg together in a bowl, and in a separate bowl beat the egg and milk together. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.
3. Drop spoonfuls of the dumpling dough onto the simmering fruit and cover with a lid. Let the dumplings steam on top of the berries until they’re puffed and cooked through, about 15-20 minutes. Let the pan cool down for about 30 minutes so the blackberries can set up a little, then serve the warm dumplings with whipped cream (or other creamy topping).

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News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/11/06/superabundant-recipe-blackberry-dumplings-history-agriculture/