The main difference between berries and cherries is where the seed is and whether the whole fruit is edible or not. This difference sometimes reflects in how dishes in which blackberries and cherries go together are prepared. Despite these and other (taste/texture/aroma) differences, several blackberry dishes can accommodate cherries as ingredients.
How well blackberries and cherries go together mostly depends upon the dishes. Let’s take a look at some of them:
Blackberry Tarts: Blackberries can be combined with cherries in a few tart recipes. There is not a lot of variety, but the blackberries and cherries can go together well in a tart in multiple ways. One of the recipes calls for oatmeal, and if it’s not your “taste” of the meal, you might consider alternatives.
Two examples would be:
Blackberry Cocktails And Smash: Cocktails, even though they are inherently poised for different fruity combinations, are not very flexible when it comes to blackberries and cherries. There are only a handful of ways you can make the two work in cocktails and smashes. A popular cocktail the combines the two is the sidecar cocktail.
Two of the ways are:
Blackberry Milkshake: The blackberry and cherry combination doesn’t really work with dairy milk all the well, so there is a severe shortage of blackberry milkshake recipes in which cherries are used unless you are simply dipping them on top or putting them on the icing on to of a blackberry milkshake. But you can make smoothies using a few milk alternatives, primarily almond milk and coconut milk.
The three blackberry and cherry smoothies you might want to give a try are:
Blackberry Muffins: You can prepare a delicious blackberry muffin and a sensational cherry muffin, but apparently, you can’t prepare an edible blackberry muffin with cherries. Unless you want to place a pitted cherry in a cut-up muffin just to make the combination work, there are no easy-to-find or easy-to-prepare recipes for a blackberry muffin that incorporates cherries in the process.
Blackberry Cake: Most blackberries cake can only bear to have cherries simply as toppings, but not in the cake mix. But there is a recipe that combines blackberries and cherries in a coffee cake, no less. But the most tried and tested method would be to prepare a delicious blackberry forest cake and decorate it with cherries on top.
Two blackberry cake recipes that accommodate cherries (as topping and in the mix are):
Blackberry Jam: Both blackberries and cherries work very well as core jam ingredients, but they also go together in one jam jar. The jam can be made with and without pectin and with gelatin as well. Since both blackberries and cherries have an element of tartness in them (though it would depend quite heavily on how ripe the fruits are), you might have to go a bit heavy on the sugar for the jam to come out okay.
Three recipes you might consider:
Blackberry Pies: Pies are much more flexible when it comes to different fruity combinations compared to many other fruit groups. Blackberries and cherries go together in pie aptly called “berry-cherry” or “cherry-berry” pie. Most of these pies are blackberry-cherry exclusive, while others include other berries (mostly raspberries) as well.
Three blackberry pies with cherries that you might want to try are:
Blackberry Salads: The way they are prepared, many would argue whether salads are proper “dishes” at all, but however you want to classify them, there is one advantage they offer that many other food groups don’t. They allow you to combine many unlikely ingredients in one bowl. Blackberries and cherries are no exception, and they are combined in a surprising number of salads.
Three nutritious blackberry salads with cherries in them are:
Blackberry Butter: You can make blackberry butter and cherry butter and combine them together on bread or toast, but a blackberry-cherry butter is not in the books…yet.
Blackberry Pudding: Even though puddings are usually very forgiving of weird food pairings, blackberries and cherries don’t go together very well in a pudding. You can, however, combine them in a few different desserts, a crisp, and a crumble, for example.
The recipes for blackberry and cherry crisp and crumble are:
Blackberry Bread: No blackberry and bread muffin recipes should have been a giveaway for this as well. There aren’t any recipes that combine blackberry and cherry bread. You can, however, combine the two in separate recipes, like blackberry bread with cherry jam/sauce or something similar, so the prospect is not completely lost.
Blackberry Ice Cream: Blackberry and cherries go together in very few ice cream recipes. Mixed berry cherry ice cream is one way, but it’s a more comprehensive mix where blackberries might get dominated by other cherries, on the unequal footing to the cherries. Some blackberry ice cream recipes also allow you to replace blackberries with cherries.
Two blackberry ice cream recipes that incorporate cherries (or consider them an alternative) are:
Blackberries and cherries don’t go together in as many recipes as you might like to think, thanks to their similarities. But there are enough combos to keep your desire for putting the two together sated.